


emergence (or, the process of coming into view)

by Lake (beyond_belief)



Category: Generation Kill, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Botany, Clones, Getting Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Major Character Injury, One Direction Big Bang, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Space Stations, minor Generation Kill crossover, more plants than space, needed some adults to populate the space station and also be in charge of things, other characters not mentioned in tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2019-12-18 09:04:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18246689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/pseuds/Lake
Summary: It is 2103, and Earth mandates all planet-side residents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five serve three years on a space station as preparation for the eventual migration to Jupiter.(aka, Liam works in the Botany department of a space station)





	emergence (or, the process of coming into view)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 2 of the One Direction Big Bang. A _Generation Kill_ crossover because someone needed to be in charge of these band dudes on this space station, and because I needed to write Brad Colbert with a beard. 
> 
> Art by the lovely [missytearex](http://missytearex.tumblr.com/) \- ♥

**minus eighteen**

"New flight crew comes tomorrow," Louis says happily, spearing another protein cube with his fork. They're barbecue-flavored today, Liam's second favorite but definitely not one that Louis enjoys, and when Louis chews and swallows it while still smiling, Liam knows little will dent his mood. "A proper squad this time, instead of the dregs they sent last time."

"Niall turned out okay," he points out, and Louis waves his fork in what could be agreement. "And the rest aren't dead yet."

"Sad, how jaded we've become." Louis swipes the last bite of Liam's bread, then pauses in the way that Liam knows means he's listening to the station.

Liam eats a protein cube, then asks, "Something happening?".

"No, Lou's fixing the compressor on B-deck, and Station's griping at him that he took long enough."

The _Tomlinson_ is quite small, as space stations go, but still large enough to need an entire outfit of networked engineer-avatars. Liam's been here long enough that he stopped thinking of them as clones even before he got to be actual friends with Louis - _Tomlinson EA Two_ \- and friendly with the others.

"It did take about a week more than you expected to get those parts in," he says in reply to the compressor issue. He offers Louis the last protein cube from their communal plate, but Louis shakes his head. "You on call tonight?"

"Babysitting duty," Louis replies with a grin. 

Someone shuffles onto the bench next to Liam and he looks over. It's Harry, looking as though he's spent his entire shift in the maintenance rig that operates between the two shells of the station, and is now too queasy to do anything more than slump over the table, which is what he's now doing. Liam moves Harry's hair so he won't get it in his plate and Harry mumbles a thank-you.

"All right there, Styles?" Louis asks. 

Harry flips him off, but weakly. Liam pats Harry's shoulder and says, "Must have been on shell duty."

"Sealed fifteen micro-fractures," Harry sighs. 

"What's the record?" Liam asks Louis. "Twenty-five?"

"Twenty-four," Louis says, after a second of accessing Station to get the information. "Fifteen is more than usual for you, Harry, I'm sort of impressed."

"Shut up," Harry groans. 

Liam pats Harry's shoulder again. "Sit up and eat before you feel any grosser, mate."

Harry sighs, but does as Liam suggests, and makes it mostly through his portion before listing sideways and propping himself against Liam's shoulder. Liam sees Louis narrow his eyes at that. Louis isn't very good at sharing Liam's space with other people, which Liam finds a little bit baffling, since Louis shares most of his existence with the other EAs - but he's also sort of secretly thrilled when Louis is unable to hide his possessiveness. 

Part of him wishes Louis wouldn't even try to hide it. 

Liam moves his shoulder, nudging Harry slightly. "Don't fall asleep or you'll be falling off the bench in about ten seconds; I do have to get back to Botany before nineteen hundred."

"That's right, your plants," Harry grumbles, but he sits up. 

"They are everyone's plants. So you can breathe and eat and all those necessary things," Liam replies, a thing he's said a hundred times before. He stacks their empty plates and utensils, then looks at Louis. "Where's babysitting, the Sergeant's quarters?"

Louis nods. "Find me there?"

Harry's now making an array of gagging noises, so Liam elbows him lightly on the back of his head before returning the dishes to the conveyer. Behind the wall, he can hear the automated sanitizer hiss and moan, then make a painful creaking noise. It'll probably be the next thing to break - Lou and Station will both be grumpy about it.

He catches the transport tube up to C-deck. Even after nine months, riding it more than a few decks always gives his stomach a jolt, and Liam's thankful for the lush warm air of the botany bay when he steps out of the tube car. He breathes in the unmistakable scent of dirt and green things, and immediately feels the queasiness dissipate. 

Nate waves from the small pod with all the electronics in it, made that way to keep them as dirt-free and dry as possible. Liam waves back, and Nate makes some hand gestures that indicate he's got ten minutes before the automated watering system rigged above them makes another pass. Liam's gotten caught it in countless times before; he doesn't mind all that much. He swaps his station shoes for his gardening boots, then steps off the walkway onto the soft planting bed.

Botany takes up nearly a quarter of the station, and half of D-deck beneath it is the drainage system and water recycling pools, catching whatever the plants don't drink so that it can be reused. Above him is the watering and sunlight rig, and above that the shell. Liam knows the starlight isn't anything the plants can photosynthesise off of, but it seems to make everyone who comes to C-deck feel more at home to be able to see the stars above them instead of a flat white ceiling with a lighting rig. Liam worked in a greenhouse like that on Earth for a few months before his assignment here, and even with all the plants, it had never felt like anything other than being indoors. This way, there's at least the suggestion of being in an outdoor nursery, even though no one ever forgets that they're not. 

He checks the small orchard first, since their fruit trees are the touchiest. But the apple trees have all been thriving since Nate had doctored up a new fertilizer, and the pears also seem to be adapting well to it. 

There's a click, then Nate's voice over the intercom. "There's a new shipment of seeds, if you feel like getting dirty tonight, otherwise they'll hold until tomorrow. And we should start transplanting the fernlets, they're getting too big for the nursery."

Liam pushes the left-side button on his comm. "Copy that. I'll do some of the fernlets now, free up space in the nursery."

"Sounds good. I'm off for the night." 

Liam gets out from under the trees in time to wave goodbye to Nate, then heads for the nursery. The air inside is warmer than the rest of the bay. He brushes his fingers over the semi-sentient fern that likes to hang out just inside the doorway, and feels the tiny leaves flutter in response. "Hello Noola," he murmurs, and the fern jumps onto his shoulder. It's hardly any weight at all, but he feels the roots squeeze to hold on. "It's time for the wee ones to move out."

Noola rides along on his shoulder as he takes the first of the baby ferns from the nursery to their new homes by the small waterfall, and it pats his cheek softly with a few fronds once he's nestled them into the soft dirt. "Oh, did I do a nice job?" he asks, and it pats his cheek again. 

He finishes up two-third of the ferns before he has to water the things that are out of reach of the rig above, then leaves Noola in the nursery again and washes up. Station never sleeps, someone's always on duty, but Liam feels like it's quieter after 2100. People are still working, but two-thirds of the station works A shift, so almost all of those crew members are now in the habitat decks. 

He double-checks that the lights are set to dim once he closes up the bay, then sets the alarm. According to Nate, if they didn't secure it, people would steal off the fruit trees and pick the beans, trample all sorts of things they didn't even realize they were stepping on. "I would say it's a shame, but more than likely it's just human nature in a place like this," Nate said one day as they unloaded a pallet of supplies sent over from the _Hadid_. "I think some of the new recruits have never even been down to the surface. A handful of the bigger stations are old enough now that babies born there are the right age to join up."

Liam hasn't been back to his Earth habitat since he was assigned here, but he vid-chats with his family at least once a week, and usually takes his handheld around the gardens to show them what's new. He should do that again, now that the waterfall area is starting to look quite lush, but right now he's supposed to meet up with Louis. 

Station tells him Louis is in the Sergeant's quarters, and when Liam gets to the hab decks, the door to the outer room slides open soundlessly in front of him. Inside, it's mostly quiet except for the murmur of Louis's voice he can hear coming from somewhere. He's singing to the baby. Liam joins in without thinking; it's one of the lullabies he'd taught Louis a few weeks ago, and after a few seconds, Louis's hand pops out from around a corner, waving.

He's on one of the multi-purpose cushions that everyone uses for furniture on the hab decks, holding Colbie. The baby looks like he's almost asleep, with a finger stuck in his mouth and a furrow to his tiny brow. "He's a bit cross tonight," Louis whispers. "The singing helps." 

"Guess we'll keep singing, then," Liam whispers back.

  


**minus seventeen**

He finds Louis on the cold flight deck the next morning, standing next to one of the sleek simulator pods. Louis has got that smug look on his face, the one he always gets when he's dumped one or more of the newbies into the flight simulator for their first go. 

"Trying to scare them off already?" Liam asks.

"Need to know if they can deal," Louis answers smoothly. "Otherwise it's off to another assignment."

With a soft whooshing noise, the simulator lowers to the deck and the door slides open. Liam sees a pale face inside and the reflection of glasses. "Y'alright there, mate?" he asks, offering an arm for the newbie to grab if he needs it.

"Stomach's lurching," the kid says, but he gets out steadily enough. He looks a bit sweaty around the temples; Liam's seen enough people come out of the simulators to know that's normal for the first few tries. 

Louis is grinning. "You did all right, lad. Sit there a minute and settle."

"He does this to everyone," Liam tells the kid. "I'm Liam."

"Brendan," he says, wiping his face with his sleeve, then shaking Liam's hand. "Are you on flight crew?"

"No, I work in the botany bay. If you ever want to breathe less recycled air, it's up on C-deck."

"Cool."

"Leemo, I'm about to crack open the other sim," Louis calls, so Liam leaves Brendan to regain his equilibrium and goes to meet the other newbie.

This one is taller than Brendan and even wobblier climbing out, but Louis is beaming, and claps the guy on the back. "You passed, too. Excellent showing, the both of you."

"Is the real thing that bad?" the guy asks, wide-eyed, tugging a little at his flight jumpsuit as though it doesn't fit right. Liam can't blame him, those jumpsuits are bloody uncomfortable.

"No, lad," Louis laughs. "This was just to see if you could handle the pressure well enough so I can move you to the actual training program, or if you needed reassignment. But you did well, I swear."

This newbie's name is Dalton, and when he and Brendan are a bit more settled, Louis hands them each comms and tablets, and sends them off to find their rooms on the hab deck just as the Sergeant steps out of one of the transport tubes. "Are you sending those new kids off to get lost, Louis?" he asks, once they've gotten into another. 

"It's a small station, they'll sort it out," Louis replies. "And Station's keeping an eye on 'em, she'll let me know if they really get lost."

The Sergeant rolls his eyes, then scratches at his beard. "Don't you have plant things to be doing, Payne?" he asks Liam.

Liam's gotten used to the Sergeant's dry questions by now, and knows he's not being told to leave. "Not until thirteen hundred."

"Where's Lou and El at?" the Sergeant asks Louis, who blinks a few times as he talks to Station, then says that Lou and El are all the way up in Command, the top-most part of the station.

"Goddamnit, I just came from up there," the Sergeant mutters, before he grumbles something about a station full of kids and stalks off towards the transport tubes again. 

Louis looks at Liam and shrugs. "Food?"

"That's what I came to pick you up for," Liam replies with a grin. "Only to find you torturing the new lads. I thought there should be more than two?"

"Two more arrive tomorrow. Some sort of backup with all the fitness processing." Louis sticks his head in each of the simulator pods, Liam figures to be sure they're shut down completely, before hooking his arm through Liam's. They have to stand close together to both fit in the transport tube, and Louis leans against him a little. 

"Tired?" Liam asks, confused. Part of being connected to Station means Louis and the rest of the EAs don't get as tired as normal humans. He pats Louis's arm through his jacket. 

"A bit. Tommo took one of the shuttles down to the planet overnight, a real surface trip, and Station gets a touch worried when one of us is gone. Then we all feel it." He rests his head on Liam's shoulder for a moment. It's nice, and Liam likes having him so close, but it only last for a few seconds, and Louis straightens up as the tube arrives at their destination.

Liam feels a touch unsettled at anyone having to go down to the actual wilds, versus docking with one of the habitats. "What for?"

Louis pauses a moment before answering, probably checking with Station about Liam's clearance. As they collect their plates of protein cubes - cheese flavored today - and bottles of the green vitamin beverage, he says softly, "Station says you can know, because Tommo might come back with things for botany, but keep quiet about it, yeah? Something crashed on the surface, couple kilometers outside one of the habs. And they refused to send even a clone out to check, so all the stations were -" he gestures with his sealed bottle. 

"So what was it?" Liam whispers.

Louis doesn't answer for even longer this time. Liam picks up his fork and eats methodically until Louis says, "Tommo and Station are still sorting that all out."

Liam figures that means he can't know yet. "Should I make space in the nursery for whatever he might bring back?"

"Station says… yes, just in case. Nate already knows." Louis bends his slice of bread in half and stuffs protein cubes between the two sides. Then he tilts his head and laughs. "Dalton and Brendan got lost."

"I got lost every day for two weeks when I first got here," Liam reminds him. Then someone bumps into him from behind, and he turns to see Niall. "You got lost, too."

"'cos this one dumped me in the flight sim so I'd be all dizzy." Niall points at Louis, who only grins. "Quit grinning, I'm here to collect you for the Sergeant."

"We saw him ten minutes ago, if not less," Liam says, at the same time Louis mutters about why Niall had to fetch him and the Sergeant couldn't just tell Station. 

Niall sits down across from Liam once Louis has gone. Liam finishes his protein cubes. "You tell him yet?" Niall asks.

"No."

"Why not? Just snog him, it'll be fine." Niall smiles widely, and Liam wants to chuck some bread at him, but does not. "Really, Leemo. You guys hang all over each other, I swear Louis is only ever about four seconds away from jamming his hand into your trousers."

Liam sighs, then points a finger at Niall. "You know the second I snog Louis, Station will know, all the EAs will know, and Tommo already smirks at me every time we're on the same deck."

"Because Tommo knows Louis is only waiting for you to man up and kiss first, ya idiot."

"Please leave me alone," Liam grumbles. He leans his forehead on the table, then feels Niall pat his hair. "No, I don't want your bloody sympathy."

"Me and Harry are going to make signs and stand behind Louis all the time and hold them up," Niall says, sounding smug. "These signs will say: Kiss first, ya idiot."

"Fuck off."

NIall laughs. "No, sorry." 

Liam sits up again. Niall's not wrong - he's at least somewhat sure that his feelings are somewhat reciprocated, and the other EAs all seem to be in various relationships of various complications. "Maybe once he's done onboarding the new flight crew," he sighs.

"I'm going to shove you at him," Niall warns. "You can fall into his arms, literally."

"Don't you have better things to do than bother me?"

"At the moment? No. I'm waiting for the medical supplies shipment to arrive, should be here in about fifteen minutes."

Liam finishes his vitamin drink and chucks the cap at Niall. "Hailee flying today?"

Niall nods, beaming. "She's on the run between here and the _Swift_ this week."

The _Tomlinson_ 's sister is a manufacturing station, and four times as large. Both of Liam's sisters had been assigned there, but he's glad he wound up here in botany, where it's a little bit quieter. 

"Nate mentioned we're shipping some of the fernlets over there, so I'll probably see her tomorrow when we load up," he says to Niall, just as Niall's comm beeps and he stands up.

"That's my shipment. See you later, yeah? Don't wimp out." He waves and jogs off towards the transport tubes. Liam glares halfheartedly after him for a moment before cleaning up his lunch and heading to C-deck to start his shift.

  


**minus fifteen**

Liam's up to his wrists in potting mix when he hears the soft whoosh of the transport tube stopping. "In the nursery," he calls, and Noola rustles in anticipation of whoever it is.

It's Tommo, pushing a cart full of some very sad-looking plants ahead of him. "Was only an old satellite that went down," he says, and Liam remembers the crash Louis mentioned a few days ago, "but it landed right in a zone where New London was trying to rehab an old strain of veg. So they're hoping we can get it done instead."

It's hard to feed people when the climate outside the habitats is often too unstable to grow much, and getting more unstable every year. Since Liam was assigned to the _Tomlinson_ , they've sorted out about a half-dozen varieties that needed a quiet nursery to get started before getting shipped back down to the surface, or shipped to another station. He points to the end of one of the tables. "There's space at the end there, I'll look at them once I finish with these seeds."

"I forget how humid it is in here," Tommo says once he's unloaded the trays. "It feels nice after being in the shuttle, but makes my hair a mess."

He fixes the beanie he always wears to corral his hair. It took Liam a few days to remember which look went with which clone, but it helps that they're not quite all the same age. Louis is technically only a couple weeks older than Tommo, but to Liam he looks about five years older. 

Liam mists what he's planted and wipes his hands, then goes over to look at the wilted rescue veg. "You know there's people who think we should quit trying with food that's grown, and eat that cultured stuff the cubes are made of all the time," he says to Tommo, who's wiggling his fingers at Noola for it to wave back at. 

"None of us really like veg," Tommo replies, and Liam laughs. 

Tommo leaves once Liam determines the squash - whatever kind it might be - will probably be fine once it gets some attention. He's almost done transplanting the plants into a hydroponic rig when he hears the transport tube woosh again, and Nate and El come in. "I told you Liam would have it under control," Nate says to El, once Liam ducks out from under the web of tubing. 

"New London's botany chief is right mad about those vines," she replies. "Don't know where they found the seeds, couldn't get him to 'fess up."

Noola climbs down to sit on El's shoulder, and El pats it softly. "Plants are causing quite the crisis, it's mad," she says to Liam.

"They're only squash," he replies. "What's the crisis?"

"I had to pull rank to do the salvage op," Nate says, inspecting the rig. "If I had to guess, New London dug the seeds out of some fucking vault that they didn't want to admit to having when the fresh food shortage started, because they didn't want to share. This is a good job, Liam."

"Thanks. I've a few left to put in." 

"We'll leave you to finish, I just wanted to check in before I turn in. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can't clone those up so we've got a crop, too." Nate claps his shoulder, then gently lifts Noola from where the fern is perched on El's arm, and returns it to the spot above the doorway. 

Liam gets the rest of the plants detangled from the poor dirt they'd arrived in and placed in the rig, winding the spiraling tendrils around the nutrient tubes in the hopes that they'll cling and grow, then turns the whole thing on. It hums softly, and he sees the fluid start to circulate in the tubes, but it'll probably be a few hours before the plants show a response. 

He checks on the ferns he'd planted a few days ago, then on all the fruit trees. There are a few people relaxing by the waterfall. "I'm closing up in a few minutes," he says, and they get to their feet and head for the transports. 

His comm beeps. It's Louis. "Still in botany? It's 2300."

"Lost track of time working on those new arrivals, I'm almost done."

"I'll come to you," Louis says, and Liam's comm beeps off.

He finishes the rest of his evening checks, then mists Noola with water while he waits for Louis. The wet fern drops down onto Louis when he walks through the nursery door, making him shout. "What - you're all wet," he sputters while Liam laughs. "Now I'm all wet."

Noola pats at his face with several leaves. Louis sighs, looking resigned. To Liam, he says, "You about set?" as Liam uses his handheld to check the lighting timers.

"Just have to lock up. Noola, leave Louis alone now, all right?"

Louis reaches up to put Noola back where it lives. "Does it ever leave botany?" he asks curiously.

"Nate's let it ride on his shoulder when he goes on break sometimes, I think." Liam nudges Louis ahead of him out the nursery door, closing it to keep the moist air in, then sets the alarm for the whole bay. "No babysitting tonight?"

"Colbie's with his actual parents tonight," Louis laughs. "We could watch a movie." 

"Sounds great." 

Liam's quarters are small - bunk, two footlockers that double as tables, a rack for his clothes, and a couple of the all-purpose cushions. He doesn't spend much time in here, since Harry and Mitch are on the quarters on either side of him, and they both have guitars. Liam enjoys music, but not while he wants to sleep. 

"I got snacks, too," Louis says, shouldering past Liam into the small room and pulling several packets from his jacket pockets. "'s only those fruit jellies, them little round things, but I stole them from Lou, so that automatically makes them fun."

"One of these days you're going to get in trouble," Liam replies, chuckling. 

"I definitely will not." Louis elbows a few of the cushions into a shape he's satisfied with, then pulls Liam down next to him. "It's payment for all the babysitting, innit?"

"Uh, you go ahead and tell yourself that." Liam puts his handheld on the little stand and flicks through Station's library. 

Louis leans on his shoulder, watching the titles scroll by, until he reaches out and jabs at the screen. "Station's very proud of herself for acquiring these, she likes monster smash movies, even if they are older than your grandparents' grandparents' grandparents."

Liam's not going to bother figuring that math. "So if Station likes it, does that mean you like it?" he asks, checking to be sure the tablet will project at the correct angle onto the bare wall. 

Louis hums. "Never thought about it that way."

"Really?"

"'spose it's more like - we're all clones but we're still different people, yeah?" Louis asks, and Liam nods at that. "Station's not big enough to need her own projection like on the _Swift_ , so she's just bossy to me and the others."

He pauses, and Liam knows Station is protesting that descriptor. "Is she giving you shit for saying that?" he asks, jabbing his elbow a bit into Louis's side.

"'course." Louis pushes the button to start the movie and snuggles against Liam, hooking their arms together and leaning his head on Liam's shoulder. They watch the movie for a while without talking, although Liam hears Louis mumble something occasionally that's probably for Station to hear. Then Louis turns his head so that his face is very close to Liam's face. "Leemo."

"Yeah, mate?"

"Jellies?"

"Okay."

Louis opens the packets sitting in his lap, then carefully sets the blue ones in Liam's palm. "I know they're your favorite," he whispers, like it's a secret. 

Liam blinks down at the jellies and realizes he doesn't know which kind is Louis's favorite. It feels strange not to know, given how much time they spend together off-duty. He watches Louis rifle through the packet and pick out the red ones to eat first. 

"You're looking at me strange," Louis says, chewing. His hair falls forward and he pushes it impatiently to the side. 

"I don't know what kind you like."

Louis grins. "All of them. Don't they all taste the same to you?"

"No," Liam replies, drawing the word out for a second. "No? I don't think so."

Louis makes a vaguely irritated noise and sticks a green jelly into Liam's mouth. "It's the same as the blue, don't be daft, Liam."

Liam chews and swallows - it doesn't taste the same, Louis is mad - then leans against Louis's shoulder, laughing. "This conversation is what's daft."

"Station _is_ chastising me for missing the movie." Louis sets the candy aside. "I barely know what's happening. Station, what's happening?"

" _Godzilla is destroying the Mars colony_ ," Station intones, her voice pleasant, as Louis slides his hand into Liam's and squeezes lightly. It's nice, and Liam's stomach also does a wiggly sort of thing, because Louis is still very close and Liam's remembering his conversation with Niall. 

Oblivious to this, Station continues," _The humans will soon flee on their ships._ "

"You don't think Station's sort of mad for liking these?" Liam whispers into Louis's ear, but Louis only laughs and snuggles up against him again.

  


**minus eleven**

"Liam!" Nate calls, the second Liam steps out of the transport tube into Botany. "In the nursery!"

Liam quickens his pace, because Nate's not usually one for raising his voice. "What's it?" he asks, skidding a bit on the slick flooring through the doorway.

Noola's on Nate's shoulder, fronds around his neck, and he looks distinctly grumpy about it. "I need to work on this cell culture," he says, gesturing at the microscope in front of him. "And _someone_ is dying for human contact today; there's some new babies so I think it's a little jealous. Would you please take it out of here for a while?"

"'course, we could go for a bit of a walk." Liam reaches out, and the fern shimmies off Nate's neck and onto his arm. "Do some visiting."

Nate waves them off, attention already back on his work. 

Liam reaches up to make sure Noola is secure; the fern doesn't weigh very much despite being large enough that its fronds hang halfway down Liam's back. "Ready?" he asks it, and soft leaves pat his cheek. "Lovely, let's go."

They go down to G-deck first. Most of the lower decks are given over to shuttle bays and various flight things, since the _Tomlinson_ is the first stop between Earth and the much larger port on Mars. Rehabbing plants and working on food supply is their secondary mission after training pilots on the latest flight tech. The further humans go into space, the better the ships have to be. Eventually - Liam knows this won't happen until after he's long dead - Earth will be abandoned to whatever wildlife that can survive, and probably the handful of survivalist groups that refuse to leave.

He finds Louis running several flight simulations for the new trainees, standing behind a monitor that's displaying information so quickly that Liam can't make most of it out. "Hey," Louis says, not looking away from the screens. "Botany actually run out of things for you do to?"

"I'm taking the fern for a walk so it'll leave Nate alone," Liam answers, and sees the corners of Louis's eyes crinkle up as he smiles. "We'll leave if you're busy, though."

"Nah, you're fine." Louis reaches a hand out and brushes over Noola, who vibrates happily at him, then squeezes Liam's forearm. "They'll be done with this sim in a minute, and I'll let 'em catch their breath before they go again."

Liam watches the screens with Louis until the ending lights flash and the pods a few yards away settle to the deck. "These three are doing well, but I did have to send one for reassignment," Louis says, a bit of a frown pulling at his mouth. "He's a great lad, Gio, just couldn't handle the sims for the combat runs. Think he went to work with Doc, so they didn't boot him off-station."

"Mitch did mention there was someone new in med, seemed quite pleased since the guy also plays some sort of guitar. So now there'll be three of them keeping me awake."

"Should just learn yourself." Louis grins at him. "Join in."

"So some other poor bastard can groan about it?"

Noola rustles loudly and pats at his forehead. Liam chuckles. "I know, you like music. We'll go get my tablet after this, and listen while I work on those hydro rigs. If Nate lets us back in."

The pods all slide open, and Noola stretches in that direction, clearly eager for new humans to meet. "Is it okay?" Liam asks Louis, who nods and waves a hand towards the pods, looking down at whatever's on the screens. 

Dalton and Brendan he knows, and there's a blonde girl now as well, and the fern waves in her direction as her expression goes from vaguely queasy to intrigued. "Hi, sorry," Liam says, "Noola likes meeting new people. I'm Liam."

"Bella. That a fern? The kind that's more like a pet?" Bella reaches out, and Noola climbs into her palms. "That's amazing."

"It lives in the nursery, but wouldn't give my boss a moment's peace today, so it got kicked out for a bit." 

Bella wiggles her fingers and Noola rustles happily again. Liam glances over his shoulder and sees Louis still working at his monitors. Dalton and Brendan have both climbed out of their pods and drifted closer so they can also pet Noola. Liam feels good about choosing to visit here first. He leaves Noola with the pilots and slides back towards Louis. "They all pass?"

Louis looks up and smiles, pushing his hair away from his eyes as usual. "Yes, they're all quite good, so I'm pleased. Are you going up to A-Deck after this? You should leave Noola with the Sergeant, he'll be proper mad about it."

"You could get away with that, but I can't." 

Louis beams like Liam's just given him the greatest compliment. "All right, take your fern away from the newbies there. Hey, what are you doing later?"

"Working, until 2200 tonight."

"Come by mine after?"

Liam feels himself flush a bit. "'course."

He gets Noola back onto his shoulder and waves goodbye to the pilots. As he's riding one of the transports back up the station, his comm beeps. It's Nate, asking that he pick up the shipment of seeds that just arrived on the opposite side of the flight deck from where he'd left. Liam hits the button to go back down and Noola's roots squeeze his shoulder tighter than usual. "Yes, that was Nate, and I know you love him," Liam murmurs to the fern. "We'll go pick up these seeds, yeah?"

He finds the right docking bay after a few minutes of looking - there are a lot of them all in a row. Niall's the one unloading the shuttle, and he pets Noola's leaves as Liam signs for the shipment. "Where from?" Liam asks.

"Sent over from the _Hadid_ , that's all I know." He hands Liam the bundle of slim tubes. "We playing footie on the rec deck again this Sunday?"

"Think so. I'll check with Louis."

In botany, Nate's put his microscope away and is tinkering with what looks like an empty hydro rig, but probably has seeds hidden in the cups. Liam lifts his arm for Noola to climb back to its perch, which it does slowly. "What's the story with the seeds?"

Nate does something with a tiny wrench, then turns around. His expression is stony. "There's four more people in botany on the _Hadid_ ," he says, clearly cross about it, "and they couldn't get these babies to grow, so they sent them over here thinking that _we_ can."

"You do seem to have a magic touch," Liam offers with a grin, and Nate grumbles. "I'm going to go check the gardens."

Liam spends the rest of his shift cleaning up the fruit and vegetable gardens, harvesting what's ripe. The things too bruised to eat he sets aside for Nate to do more of his cell and seed work on, then carefully packs up the rest to drop off at the canteen on his way to Louis's quarters. 

Louis opens the door to his room wearing his uniform trousers with a loose, thin shirt. Liam is momentarily distracted by all the visible skin above the collar, and the swirly design running over Louis's collarbones and down under the shirt. "When - when did you get a tattoo?"

"Had it for ages." Louis looks down at himself, smoothing a hand over his chest. "One of the ways we tell ourselves apart. Guess you never saw?"

"Always wearing your jacket, or that one football shirt." 

"Oh." Louis's cheeks pink slightly. "Guess so. Come on in."

His quarters are a little bigger than Liam's, with a large screen on one wall displaying what Liam figures is information from Station. He's got the sort of bunk that was once for two people, but now the top bed is both a place to sit and a place to store things. Liam always forgets that Louis has lived on the station his entire life, and will probably stay here for the rest of it. The thought suddenly makes him sad; he's got three years left on his assignment, and even though three years feels like forever right now, the day will eventually come when he'll leave the _Tomlinson_ for somewhere else. 

"What is it?" Louis asks, and Liam realizes he was staring at nothing for a second there. 

He shakes his head, pretends he was looking at the brightly colored artwork pinned to the wall in an uneven line above the top bunk. At first he thinks it's the same printed off stuff everyone uses to make the bare walls less empty, but then he notices the thickness of the paper, and realizes it's actually something someone painted. "Is this your art?" he asks Louis.

"No, it - Zayn did them for me." 

Niall had mentioned, only once before, that Louis was close to someone on the _Hadid_ , who'd been assigned here first and requested a transfer halfway through his term. Liam lined that up with Harry's mumbled comment one day about how Louis seemed to like Liam almost as much as he'd liked Zayn ("Thanks, I think?" Liam replied, waiting for Harry to elaborate, but Harry'd only shook his head a little and said, "All the other EAs have their people, yeah? Glad Louis has you."), and figured that Zayn leaving hadn't been good for Louis. But Louis never mentioned him, and Liam wasn't going to ask outright. 

"You guys were mates, yeah?" he asks now, feeling awkward about taking the opening. 

"Yeah." Louis makes an aborted movement; Liam figures he wants to stick his hands in his pockets, only he's not wearing the usual jacket. "He, ah - we hung out a lot, went nosing around all the places Station would let us look into, that sort of thing. Then he asked the Sergeant for a transfer one day, right out of nowhere."

"I'm sorry." Liam doesn't know what else he could say.

Louis shrugs, the motion flashing more of the tattoo. "Is what it is, yeah? Doubt he'll be coming back." He nudges Liam toward the bunk, and then his eyebrow quirks and he frowns a bit. He asks, "You've never been in here before?".

Liam sits down on the bunk. "We always watch movies in mine."

"Didn't even realize that." 

Liam reaches out and pulls Louis down next to him without much thought for what his hands are doing. "I'm sorry I made you sad."

Louis curls into him, leaning his head on Liam's shoulder. Liam puts his arm around Louis's waist, feels the solidity of Louis's hip where his palm ends up resting. Above them, Louis's tablet must turn on via Station's command; one of the monster smash vids starts, but the volume is low. "I'm not like, that sad," Louis mumbles, the words close to Liam's ear, "just a bit hurt still sometimes, right?"

"I get it," Liam whispers back, even though he doesn't quite, but it's nice having Louis tucked against him like this. He's a warm weight - the only place that's not generally a bit chill on the station is the botany bay, which they have to keep a few degrees higher so that all the occupants are happy, and Liam usually feels slightly chilled everywhere else he goes. 

They watch the vid for a while. Liam gets the feeling Louis isn't paying proper attention, but he doesn't tell Station to change it to something else, or to turn it off. "Leemo," Louis says, after the Godzilla has fought off something with wings, "I know you usually go to bed not long after your shift - want to sleep here?"

"Yes," Liam replies immediately.

"Should hit the head first." Louis straightens, but otherwise makes no move to get up from the bunk. He rests his hand on Liam's where it's still on his waist. "You can be the big spoon if you want."

Liam swallows against the weird sort of ache welling up in his chest, the one that makes him want to pull Louis in and fit their mouths together. Louis wouldn't ask Liam to sleep in his bed if he didn't want that too, right? 

"Okay."

Most everyone wears the same style of clothing on the station; it's not exactly a proper uniform, but base things are fairly interchangeable, and Louis tosses him some bedclothes to borrow. Liam could run to his own hab for some, it's only two corridors away, but he'd rather wear Louis's tonight. 

Nightly rituals complete - Liam always waits to shower until after he's done messing about in the dirt - they meet up again at Louis's room, and this time Louis doesn't bother with lights, just pokes Liam in the shoulder until Liam gets into the bunk with his back to the wall. Louis lies down after him, pulling the cover up over the both of them. It's heavy with the magnets sewn into the long edges, and Liam hears them clink on to the frame of the bunk so that they won't go floating if there's a loss of gravity. The effect is that of a warm cocoon. 

Louis wiggles close, his back to Liam's chest, so Liam puts his arm over Louis's waist. "You know you always smell like plants, Leemo?" Louis whispers. 

"Do I? I just washed."

"Could be one of those things where that's what Station associates, so I just think I smell it." His words are distorted slightly by a yawn. "Happens sometimes, 's weird. Spent a week once thinking the Sergeant spilled weapons oil all over himself, turned out Station was just making me smell it."

Hesitantly, Liam tucks his face into the crook of Louis's neck and shoulder, and sniffs. "You smell... like the air right out of the recycler, actually. That's weird, right?"

"Maybe the nanites doing their nanite-things."

Sometimes Liam forgets that's how Louis and the other EAs are connected to the station. "Can I ask you what's probably a fucked-up question?"

Louis puts his hand over Liam's and squeezes. "You want to know if I could disconnect from her," he murmurs, thumb sweeping slowly across Liam's fingers. "Maybe. I suppose technically, I could ditch the nanites. But I've never known what it's like to _not_ be connected to Station, and mostly I think... be too quiet for me, yeah."

Liam hums. "'spose I didn't think of that."

"Most don't, it's alright."

"People have asked you guys that before?"

"Most everyone asks, after a while," Louis replies with a chuckle. "Human nature, I'd wager. You don't know what it's like, so you can't fathom it. I mean like, people in general - not you specifically, love. Don't mind you asking me anything you want."

Liam's heart beats a little faster and he's sure Louis can tell. "What if - what if I asked if I could kiss you?"

"Then I'd say that you most definitely could do that, but also could we do that tomorrow, so I don't fall asleep partway through and miss out on it being good." Louis squeezes his hand again. 

"Okay," Liam breathes. "Niall's been giving me shit about you, you know. Just in case he starts smirking at you out of nowhere."

"Right... you all do know that Station can listen to everything you say, right?"

"You telling me Station's a gossip?"

Louis laughs outright, then snuggles back against him some more. "Station's definitely a gossip."

  


**minus six**

"Take the baby for a second, would you, Payne?" the Sergeant asks, and doesn't wait for an answer before he's handing Colbie to Liam in the middle of the corridor. "Lou should be back in a minute, I need to go down to flight."

"Uh, okay." 

The Sergeant strides off. Liam blinks after him for a moment, then looks at the baby, who looks back at him with wide blue eyes. "Hi there," Liam whispers, and leans his face in to brush his nose over Colbie's. 

Colbie giggles and mashes his face against Liam's in his baby-approximation of kisses. "Oh, does no one cuddle you?" Liam asks, intentionally making a dramatic face for the baby to laugh at. "I know for a fact they do, and you are spoiled."

Colbie makes some nonsense noises. Liam kisses his forehead. "Yes, very spoiled. Also getting very heavy."

"Oi, you tell that Liam you're not spoiled," a familiar voice says from behind Liam, and he turns to see Lou walking up. "Only a chubby baby, innit?"

Colbie makes a bunch of delighted noises and reaches for Lou, smacking Liam in the face as he does so. "Ow," Liam says, mildly, and passes him over. 

Colbie reaches for Lou's elaborately teased-high hair, and Lou leans back trying to avoid his grip. "Hey, hey, not Dad's hair, yeah?" To Liam he says, "Always going after it lately."

"It is very fancy," Liam replies with fake solemnity, and Lou glares. "Sarge went down to flight, so Colbie's all yours now."

"Oh, no, left with the baby," Lou deadpans. Colbie yells something incomprehensible and mashes his face to Lou's. "Oh, kisses. Thank you, lad."

Liam waves bye-bye to Colbie, who waves back excitedly enough that Lou has to lean his head back to avoid getting smacked. He grimaces at Liam, and Liam grins in reply. "Get off my deck," Lou says after him. 

"Bye-bye, baby!" Liam calls over his shoulder, and Colbie yells some more. 

"You're late, Leemo!" Niall shouts when Liam steps out of the transport tube onto the rec deck. "That means you're goalkeeper for the first game."

Harry makes finger guns in his direction. Liam groans. "Got held up having to wait with Colbie for Lou to get there," he says, as Louis holds out the net bag with his trainers in it. "Thanks."

"I still don't understand the whole having a baby on a space station," Harry says. He leans against the bank of lockers, arms crossed over his chest, frowning. 

Louis pinches him. "Permanent crew don't leave, Styles. So we have to have lives in the same place we work."

"I get that, I get it," Harry says, head bobbing. "And I like babies."

Liam shakes his head, laughing, and finishes lacing his shoes. "All set."

Louis enters the code on the rec deck's large informational panel, and with a slight shimmer, the plain and empty space transforms into a holographic footie pitch. Or half one, really; there's only one goal, but there's only four of them to play. They've all made the three-on-one jokes about half a million times. 

"Stretch out first, lads," Louis reminds them, dropping down into a crouch with his arms above his head.

"Are you that flexible because you're a clone, or just because you're you?" Harry asks, voice puzzled. Then he does the wiggly thing with his eyebrows, and looks absurd. "Are all the EAs so flexible?"

"Oi, don't you get ideas," Louis snaps, and Liam can't hold back his laugh. 

Niall prods Harry with his foot. "Get to the stretching, you want Louis to win again today?"

"Louis always scores the most goals," Harry grumbles, but gets down on the floor and reaches for his toes. 

An hour later, Liam feels like everything he's wearing is sweaty, Niall's ripped his shirt trying to tackle Harry in an entirely illegal move, Harry's insisting he's pulled a muscle and possibly done something to his knee, and Louis is gloating, because he's first to five goals yet again. 

"I'm sorry you're not as good as me," he says to Harry, grinning down at Harry where he's on the floor, clutching his side. Harry just groans and tells Louis he's a terrible winner, always with the being smug about it. 

"Are we done for the afternoon, then?" Liam asks. "Since Harry's about dead."

"Just leave me here in my pain," Harry says, overly dramatic as always. "Don't mourn. Remember me as I was."

Liam leans over him. "I'm sure someone's booked the rec deck after us, you'll be in their way."

"I don't care. They can go around me." Harry rolls onto his back, flopping his arm across his face. Niall leans down and attempts to haul him up by the shirt, but Harry only starts laughing and nearly hits Niall across the face. 

Louis puts the ball back in the net bag with his trainers and deactivates the program, leaving them standing - or lying - in the blank deck. Harry makes another exaggerated noise and staggers to his feet. "My knee really is sore," he says with a frown, rubbing a hand over it.

"Go right to med bay then, dumbass," Niall tells him. "I'll even come with you, if you want."

"Good, 'cause Doc's sort of scary, and that new guy that rotated in looks like he could probably bench-press me if he felt the need to." Harry keeps talking, but he and Niall get into a transport tube, so Liam doesn't hear the rest. 

Louis swings the bag gently, bouncing it off Liam's thigh. "All set there, Leemo?"

"The new med guy - he the one who couldn't do the combat sims?"

"Yeah, that's Gio," Louis replies, sounding sort of bummed about it. "Super nice lad. Doc seemed really happy to snatch him up, though, guess it's busier than I would have thought in medical."

Liam gestures toward the transport tube Harry and Niall have just left in, and Louis laughs. "Another rec deck casualty."

Liam swaps his shoes, and they go up to the hab level to wash up. "I have to run by the gardens and check on things," Liam says, before Louis heads to his own room, "if you want to come with?"

"Yeah, meet there in ten?"

In botany, Liam checks on the fruit trees and the vegetable plots while Louis flops down next to the waterfall with his arms and legs spread out, his hands brushing the new ferns. There's no one else wandering around, so Liam uses his shirt as a basket to gather the things that are ripe, aware that Louis is at least halfway watching him. 

"How come there's no one else in here?" Louis calls, as Liam rustles the apple trees.

"I think Nate's terrified most of the crew into keeping out of here off-hours." 

Louis laughs at that. "His face alone doesn't seem that scary, but I can see it, yeah." 

Nate's got a pleasant face that looks years younger than he actually is, but Liam's seen him sparring with Doc in the gym, not to mention seen the rack of foliage he's spliced together like some mad scientist. "It's almost spinach," he said, when he found Liam poking at the hydroponics with the composition reader, hoping it would tell him what the plants were. "With more vitamins."

Liam carries his haul into the nursery to sort out, and after a minute, hears Louis following behind him. As he sorts, he hears Louis shuffle a little, then Noola rustling for a moment. Then Louis's arm slides around his waist and he says near Liam's ear, "Wasn't much of a kiss the other morning."

Liam had barely been awake when Louis climbed out of the bunk, then leaned over him. "Flight deck problem, gotta go engineer a thing," he whispered, before pressing his mouth gently to Liam's for a second. And they'd both been busy after that - this is the first time Liam's actually been alone with Louis since. 

"So you plan on fixing that, yeah?" he ventures, putting his hand over Louis's and squeezing, then stroking over Louis's knuckles with his thumb. He puts another misshapen, but still good, tomato in the box for the canteen before turning around. Louis is very close. Liam settles his hands on Louis's shoulders. "Hi."

"Hi." Louis leans in a bit, and his nose brushes over Liam's cheek. "Kisses now, yeah?"

Liam tips his head slightly and their mouths line up. He registers the stubble on Louis's face but it's not a bother; he's sure his own face isn't any better. Louis kisses firmly, warm, clearly not worried at all about pressing his body to Liam's. 

"You mess around with boys before?" Louis asks, before pressing a soft kiss to the corner of Liam's mouth.

"Half a kiss once, maybe. We were eleven," Liam says. "Then he ran away, and never came over again."

"That's sad."

Liam shrugs a little, but he supposes he sort of is. "I guess I didn't think about it a lot, given that I was eleven and all."

Noola rustles behind them, and Louis turns around just in time for it to drop down, and he catches it with his arm. "Ruining the mood, innit?" he says to the fern, and Liam can't help but laugh. Noola settles on Louis's shoulder, but reaches out to tap Liam on the cheek. 

"I should finish up this veg quick, anyway," he says, turning back to the table. Most of the tomatoes are good, the aubergines are a little small but otherwise perfect, and there's a few knobbly heads of garlic, only the second harvest of it since Liam came aboard. 

Louis is hovering over his shoulder, so Liam says, "You know it takes nine months for garlic to grow?".

"Really? Like it's a baby."

"Never thought about it until I started working here." He puts all the good stuff in a bin and leaves the few inedible things for Nate to tinker with. "Have to drop this off at the canteen. You coming to mine?" 

"Can't, need to get a quick nap in before I wake the newbies up for a midnight flight sim." Louis grins at he says it, rocking back on his heels. Noola pats at his head. "'s right, Noola. Wake 'em up and toss 'em in a pod, really gets the nerves going."

"You absolute monster," Louis groans, but he doesn't mean it at all.

  


**minus two**

"What's it like, waking up a teenager?" Liam asks, as they're curled together in Louis's bunk. Louis smells vaguely like engine lubricant and that sharp thing Liam associates with ion drives, and Liam's sure he smells like dirt and probably the half-rotten tomato he tread on before realizing it was there. Louis doesn't seem to care. Their heads are on the same pillow and Liam feels like he's going a little cross-eyed trying to focus on Louis's face, so he gives up, and lets his eyes close.

"First, we were twelve, so not proper teenagers yet. And really - I don't remember much of the first few weeks. There's like a school, but it's less about learning things than about giving us a bit of time to catch up to all the things we'd already absorbed from Station, while we did a bunch of PT to get in shape. 's a bit mad, I know." 

Louis shifts his body closer, his hand settling on Liam's waist. "After a month or so, I felt like - well, like I do now. Like me." 

"So you've never known what it's like, not to talk to Station?"

"She's always been there," Louis affirms, then laughs softly. "She's listening now; she thinks this is funny."

Liam's not sure how a space station can find something funny, but he's willing to go with it. "I guess she hears everything."

Louis nods, his nose brushing Liam's cheek. Liam thinks about the station watching them right now, which makes him feel weird for a moment until he figures they're definitely not the only people she's seen like this, and in even more compromising positions. There's no privacy anywhere out here. Louis seems to know what he's thinking, because he says, "Don't worry, Station's really good at keeping actual secrets if she has to, even from me and the others. If I try to access what they've been up to, like, on purpose, she won't let me."

"That's... good, I guess." He kisses Louis then, fitting his hands over Louis's hips.

It all feels a little clumsy and awkward to Liam; there's not much extra room in the bunk. He finds out Louis has even more tattoos than he'd seen before, and tries to look at them all, even in the dim light. Louis laughs and shivers at the same time when Liam breathes over the swirls across his collarbones. 

Liam winds up flat on his back, with Louis over him, which at first feels overwhelming and close, but then just feels _right_. He can keep one hand in Louis's hair, and use the other to touch wherever Louis directs him to touch. Dressed, Louis looks almost thin, like there might not be much to him under the uniform trousers and bomber jacket, but now Liam can see and feel the lean muscles. 

Louis pushes on his shoulders a little bit, looking down at him. "All right there, love?"

"'course," Liam breathes.

Liam pulls him down into a kiss, sliding his thumbs over Louis's cheekbones as he does, noting that Louis shivers a bit at the touch. Louis bites gently at his lower lip, then swipes his tongue over the spot before kissing down Liam's neck and exhaling hotly over the hollow of Liam's throat. The rush of damp breath against the thin skin there makes Liam's scalp tingle. 

"You never..." Louis starts, and Liam shakes his head, feeling his face redden. "I'm quite pleased to be the first person to suck your cock," Louis continues, speaking the words directly into Liam's ear, and Liam registers that Louis is carefully undoing the fastener of his trousers. His hands are quite close to where Liam's dick is pushing at the material, and Liam shudders. He's almost too warm for once, even though the magnetic blanket is folded down at the end of the bunk.

"What if I do something wrong?" Liam blurts out, as though arousal has negated his ability to think before he speaks, and immediately feels himself blush even harder, all the way down his neck and out into his ears. 

Louis fixes him with a serious look for once. The planes of his face are lit blue by the screen and his eyelashes cast a long shadow down his cheeks. "You absolutely will not," he says firmly. Then he mutters, "Do something wrong, what even, just relax and don't overthink, all right?"

Then he pulls Liam's trousers down from his hips, working in increments due to the lack of space they've got, while Liam kisses the parts of Louis's face that he can reach. Louis laughs when Liam catches the side of his nose, and slides in for another proper kiss, thorough and lingering. "All right, stop distracting me now," Louis mumbles, and kisses his way down Liam's neck. "Put your hands in my hair. Yeah, like that."

Liam flexes his fingers a bit in Louis's hair, the last actual action he remembers doing purposefully before Louis starts going down on him. After that it's all a ringing in his ears and an almost overwhelming heat in the pit of his stomach. "How did you -" he hears himself start to ask, before Louis does something with his tongue that wipes all words from Liam's head. 

He comes much faster than he wants or intends to, trying not to thrust up into Louis's mouth but probably failing, and is dazed and feeling like his limbs are made of the same gelatin as in the hydro cups when Louis looks up, grinning and wiping the back of his hand over his wet mouth. "Yeah?" Louis asks.

"Fuck you, come here," Liam groans, and slides his hand into Louis's shorts to slowly jerk him off while Louis leans over him. 

The slow part doesn't work out like he plans, because Louis just thrusts his hips at the pace he wants Liam to go, and comes with a low moan and his mouth pressed to Liam's neck. Liam traces his clean fingers lightly over the tattoo on Louis's hip, another abstract swirl that curves around to both his lower back and right above his cock. "Do these mean anything?" Liam whispers, following the design around to where it stops above Louis's ass.

"No, they're just decoration," Louis whispers back. He nuzzles even closer. "One of the ways we tell ourselves apart."

Liam hadn't thought of that. "I like them."

"Thanks," Louis murmurs, and kisses him thoroughly, leaving Liam's mouth feeling even more tender. 

Liam's just feeling like he could definitely fall asleep like this, draped over Louis still even though they're both sort of sweaty and sticky, and even though his nose feels a little bit squished against Louis's shoulder, when there's a bright light from the wall. Louis groans. After a second, Liam figures out it's the screen showing all of Station's information, and he rolls off Louis to the side against the wall. Station says, over the speaker in her pleasant voice, "A shuttle has arrived from the _Swift_ in need of emergency repair," and Louis groans again and climbs out of the bunk. 

Liam opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Louis says saucily, "No jokes about me being good with my hands," and Liam muffles his laughter into the pillow. "Right, are you - staying?"

"Um, should I? I'll uh, get my trousers on otherwise."

Louis shakes his head. "No, stay." He looks at whatever's on the screen for a moment as he fixes his hair, and Liam can tell he's listening to Station. "Hopefully shouldn't take too long," he adds, wiggling his feet into his shoes without bothering to untie them. 

"Okay."

"You can go to sleep. I'll be back." Louis smiles and pulls his jacket on, then goes out the door.

  


**zero**

Most of the time, Liam doesn't notice how large the botany bay actually is. When he arrived, and he and Nate were walking the entire outer edge, curved where it met the clear shell of the station, Nate mentioned that the gardens themselves took up nearly a sixth of the entire station. "This is actually more than a ton of growth medium," he said, crouching down to dig his hand into what at first Liam thought was dirt, but wasn't true dirt like on Earth. "The weight of all this... it's a lot, compared to the rest of the station."

There's parts of the gardens that Liam doesn't ever need to go in unless specifically instructed; Nate's got planting beds behind secure gates, his science experiments that worked well enough to move out of the nursery. Mostly Liam's harvesting whatever's ripe at the time and making sure the things that aren't ripe are growing correctly, or keeping the areas that the rest of the _Tomlinson_ 's inhabitants can visit from getting too overgrown, or whatever transplant assignment Nate's got for things that need to go to other stations or down to the surface. 

"Eventually we'll figure out how to grow enough of everything to feed everyone more than just that cultivated protein, and how to grow it all up here, with limited space," Nate said, when he showed Liam his trays of tiny seedlings. "We've got about a generation left, before even the domes will start having to evacuate. Your parents might be the last to live almost their whole lives on the surface. The Jupiter stations should be complete in twenty years."

Harry's on inside shell duty today, and he's on the rig about a quarter of the way up the dome, so Liam hikes across the width of the bay to wave and make stupid faces at him for a few minutes. "You're going to check on my light arrays while you're up there, right?" he calls up to Harry.

"Shut it, Payno," Harry yells down, brandishing what looks like a torch, and Liam laughs. Then he takes the path back over to the nursery, where there is a tray of Nate's experimental cattails that they're going to introduce by the water. He slings the belt of gardening tools over his shoulder, then grabs the cattails. 

Next to the walking path, there's a small bench backed by one of Nate's trellis projects that's got peas growing up it, where crew members can hang out on their downtime. Liam sees Brendan sitting sideways on it with his knees drawn up, doing something on his handheld. "Hey, mate," Liam calls out as he approaches, so Brendan's not startled by his sudden appearance. "How's training?"

"Tiring," Brendan groans. "I'm just playing a puzzle on this and I can't stop my eyes from crossing, I'm so tired. Flight school is no joke."

"Nope." Liam curls his arm a bit more firmly around the tray of baby cattails. "Hey, you play any football at all?"

"I have, but I'm shit at it. Why?"

Liam grins. "Sometimes we need an extra person if Niall's off flying - on Sundays, usually."

Brendan scrunches up his nose, making his glasses bobble for a second, clearly hesitating, so Liam adds, "It doesn't matter if you suck, we're all bad compared to Louis."

"Okay," Brendan laughs. "As long as you know ahead of time that I'm terrible."

"Awesome."

He's about ten meters from his destination when there's a strange noise like something cracking, and his first instinct is to look up and see if it's the dome, still while walking forward. But his foot never hits the path, there's nothing there, and there's another loud snapping noise. The tray goes up in the air and his stomach jolts; he thinks _I dropped Nate's cattails_ before everything goes black.

*****

The first thing Liam registers when he opens his eyes is that there's _nothing_.

A dizzying moment later, the fear that's rising in his throat begins to subside as he realizes he's looking at the blank white ceiling of medbay. The harsh sound he registers next is his own breathing, and the sour taste is his own mouth. His feet are cold - his feet are there, _good_ \- but his arms and hands are nice and warm. Medbay smells like antiseptic. It makes his nose twitch.

"Leemo," someone says, then Louis leans over him from the left, clear now in Liam's field of vision. "You're awake."

Liam has to work his jaw for a moment to moisten his tongue. "What -"

"There was an accident," Louis says in a rush, sounding worried, his voice seeming to echo in Liam's head a little. "You got hurt."

"Payne," another voice says, then Doc is on Liam's other side, holding a cup with a straw. "Alive, awake, and in one fucking piece. Good. Drink this juice, will you?"

Doc stares down at him as Liam drinks the juice. It doesn't taste like any other juice he's ever had. "There's extra vitamins in it," Doc says. "Your potassium is low."

"What happened?" Liam asks, when the juice is gone and his mouth no longer feels like a desert. He feels Louis's fingers wiggle through his and then squeeze warmly, and Doc gestures at Louis to go ahead.

"Part of the support section that's near the waterfall collapsed." Louis squeezes his hand again, as Liam remembers the uprooted feeling of falling. "You went down at the edge of it, and got knocked out, and your leg got..."

"Got what?"

"Got banged up really good," Doc says calmly. "More than I could fix."

Liam looks down in horror, but the outline of his leg under the sheet looks right, and his foot looks like it should. "It looks fine," he says dumbly.

"It is fine," Doc replies. "Now. Station fixed you."

A flood of heat runs through Liam, followed by a wave of cold. He feels his mouth drop open slightly. "Excuse me?"

 _Hello, Liam,_ a soft voice says. In his head. A voice in his head. 

Louis rubs his hand gently as he leans over Liam again, smiling. "Station is really excited to have someone else to talk to. I know it's weird, and it only has to be temporary, if you want. It was the only way we could think of to fix your leg."

"Short of putting you into a coma until we could get a good surgeon in here," Doc adds.

Liam feels hot, and cold, and hot again. He wrenches his hand from Louis's and yanks the sheet back from his legs. They're bruised, but otherwise normal, except - there's a thin silver line running down the shinbone of his left leg. He wiggles his toes. "What did you -"

"Tomlinson Two here donated some of his nanites," Doc interrupts, sounding bored. "Station programmed them to fix up your leg - you had a couple breaks, it was bad. The nanites knit it all - bones, muscle, nerves, skin - back together. Part of the deal is that you're connected to Station now, just like how the EAs are, but if you don't want to be, we can filter the nanites back out of your bloodstream. And you'll be back to yourself. But you've got to give it a few days, to finish healing."

Liam wiggles his toes again. Station says, _I rebuilt your leg, exactly as it was before the accident. I'm sorry the support beams failed. That part of me was built before I came online. We are fixing it now._

"This is mad," Liam breathes. He looks up at Louis. "Is it always like this?"

Louis actually laughs at him. "No. She's actually holding back nearly everything."

 _You are operating at eight-five percent human capacity_ , Station says. _The bruising will heal on its own in a few days._

"I'll explain it all once you're out of here," Louis promises. "Doc says you need to stay at least one more day because of all the medicines."

Doc pulls the sheet over Liam's legs again. "You're on some nice painkillers, Payne. If you feel woozy, it's the drugs, not the nanites."

Liam does feel a little wobbly, now that the rush of fear has passed. He leans back a little more against the pillows. "How bad are the gardens?" he asks Louis, who grimaces slightly. "Bad? Worse?"

"Station would know for sure. I went to look when Doc kicked me out before, while Station was fixing your leg - he said it would be too gross to watch -"

"It was fascinating, Two," Doc interrupts, completely deadpan.

" - so I took his word for it, and mostly it looked as though there was a big hole? There were a few trees that seemed sideways. Nate looked a little wild around the edges, but he said it wasn't the worst that could have happened." Louis leans forward in the chair and messes with his hair for a second, then adds, "The waterfall isn't running right now, but the Sergeant's working on it."

"My ferns," Liam groans, his heart sinking. 

Louis snorts, then squeezes Liam's hand and says, "I think the Sergeant's quite happy to rebuild the waterfall in the way he wants."

Liam yawns and rubs his hand over his face, seeing for the first time the bruises on his arms. "Guess I got knocked around good, in addition to the leg thing," he mumbles.

 _Nate is approaching Medical, shall I let him in?_ Station asks.

"Uh, sure, Station," Liam mutters in reply.

"Ten minutes max," Doc says as the door slides open. "You too, Louis. Liam needs a nap."

Liam's really feeling tired now, so Doc's instructions probably aren't unreasonable, but Louis tightens his grip on Liam's hand nonetheless. Nate comes up, and Liam sees he's got Noola on his shoulder. "Someone needed to visit," Nate says, grinning. "You good there, Liam?"

"Station fixed my leg," Liam says, and Nate smiles some more. 

Noola waves a bunch of fronds at Liam and wiggles down Nate's arm. "Ok to take it?" he asks, so Liam holds out his free hand, and the fern rustles over to sit on his wrist. Nate sits down on the other chair and starts telling them about the structural upgrades that are going in underneath the heaviest parts of botany now, and that he'd sent Harry down into the under-deck to fish what plants he could out of the filtration systems, and that Harry declared it a nice change from shell duty. Liam has to laugh at that, now feeling warm and floaty - Doc's probably added something to his IV - and relaxes further against the pillows. He falls asleep to Nate talking about the squash in the hydroponic rig, still with Louis holding his hand.

  


**one**

_Good morning, Liam_ , someone says, and Liam remembers it's Station, talking softly in his head. Because he's connected to Station now, because of the accident. _Are you feeling more like yourself today?_

"Uh, I am, actually," he says. He feels like he's had a good night's sleep, and the aches and pains he remembers from yesterday have completely faded. 

_That's lovely to hear. I'm pleased. Are you in any pain?_

"No." Liam pushes himself upright in the bed, looking around. No one else is in medbay, although he can hear what might be a Corps radio coming from somewhere. There are some separate exam rooms down a small corridor that he can't see; maybe Doc is in one of those. "Station, do you know if I have to stay here today, or if I can leave?"

"I heard that," Doc calls, and Liam hears footsteps. Doc rounds the corner with another guy behind him, wearing scrubs with his hair up in a bun. "Liam, this is Gio, he's new. Gio, this is Liam, you're going to help him walk around a little on that new leg so we're sure he's stable, but he's gotta eat something first."

Gio shakes Liam's hand, then passes over the plate he's carrying. It's only protein cubes and a piece of flatbread, and not very much, and Doc raises his eyebrows at Liam until he folds the bread around a couple of the cubes and takes a bite. Doc says, "You probably feel like you're hungrier, but trust me, your eyes are bigger than your stomach right now."

Liam eats his breakfast, although it's approaching noon, and drinks the strong cup of tea that Doc forces on him. "Is there mint in this?" he asks, inhaling the steam.

"You grew it yourself," Doc replies with a grin. Then he pokes at Liam's leg for a few minutes - "gotta be sure the reflexes are there before I let you walk around, Payne" - and inputs a bunch of stuff on his tablet.

 _The muscle growth is as expected, Liam_ , Station says to him.

"All right, on your feet," Doc says. Gio puts a solid arm around Liam's waist and he swings his legs down from the bed, gets his feet flat on the floor. For a second, he feels like all the blood's drained from his face and there's a very distinct sensation of wooziness that throbs in his ears, and his stomach lurches briefly. All of it clears after a moment. 

"Ready?" Gio asks, tightening his grip. 

Standing up feels weird, but only long enough for Liam to realize it feels weird, and then it starts to feel normal again. He's cold in just the gym shorts and tee, and the floor of sickbay is definitely freezing against his bare feet. "My leg doesn't feel much different at all," he says. "Just sort of like I had a cramp in it, and need to stretch."

Doc taps a few things on his tablet. "Good. Try walking around?"

Liam holds on to Gio's shoulder for a lap around the room, then does another lap on his own. Then he drinks another cup of tea alone in sickbay while Doc and Gio go to deal with someone who's burned themselves trying to do maintenance on one of the shuttles, or so it sounds like to Liam when he overhears the intercom conversation. 

"Station," he starts, when they're gone, "if Louis isn't busy, could you have him bring me my sketchpad?"

_Certainly. Are you feeling better today?_

"Yeah, I feel almost like my usual self."

_I'm glad._

"Station," he says, after another few minutes of silence, "I'm not keeping you from doing something more important when we talk, right?"

_You are not. I like to talk to everyone, and I can talk to more than one of you at a time._

"Cool. Uh, if you ever just want to talk to me, for whatever, that's also cool."

_I have noted this, thank you, Liam._

He pokes around Medical a little while he's there alone, going slowly to see if his leg feels okay, but the very slight ache dissipates after a few minutes of walking around. There's not much to see - a bunch of beds, a whole lot of equipment that he doesn't know what it does, a station screen like the one Louis has in his hab. There's a station schematic up on it right now, and Liam watches it for a while until he figures out that the two moving blue dots are Doc and Gio, down on the flight deck, and the three moving purple dots are the EAs. One is on the command deck, so probably Lou; one is in a shuttle bay, so probably Tommo; and the last one is likely Louis in the transport tube.

He asks, "Station, am I going to be on here?", just wondering.

A green dot appears in medbay. _There you are. But if you don't want to be, I will of course not show you on the tracking systems._

Liam shrugs. "Let's do it." He doesn't mind at least Louis knowing where he's at - it's a small station, as far as space stations go, but there's still plenty of space and places to be. 

_Lovely_ , Station replies. _I am always glad to have more friends. I like watching out for all of you._

"That's really nice, Station." He smiles up at the ceiling, then feels dumb, but there's monitors in here so she probably sees him. 

The door chimes once, then slides open to admit Louis, with Liam's sketching supplies in hand. He hasn't been doing it very long, and he feels like it's mostly a lost cause, even though he mostly only practices drawing things in the botany bay. "I can't leave until Doc says, and he's left to deal with something else, so - thanks for bringing this," he says to Louis, then leans over to kiss the corner of Louis's mouth.

Louis returns the kiss, pressing his lips quickly to Liam's. "I'm glad you're okay," he says quietly, then kisses Liam a bit harder for a moment before stepping back. "Ugh, it smells so artificially clean in here."

Liam's used to the oxygenated, somewhat moist air of the botany bay, so he has to agree, but Louis is used to the sharp smell of the ion drives on the shuttles, so he also can't help but chuckle. "Just because it doesn't smell like repair grease."

Louis grins sunnily at that. "What are you going to sketch in here?"

"Don't even know." He waves a hand at the empty beds. "Maybe just what's around. It feels strange to work on some of my botany things." 

He flips open the sketchbook and holds up a mostly-finished sketch of the waterfall. Louis's face falls slightly. "Yeah, I can understand that, yeah. You could, uh, draw me?"

"I'm so bad at people, though," Liam groans. "But maybe…" He could probably sketch Louis's outfit, at least. 

"I've got twenty minutes before I have to be back on the flight deck for the shuttle coming in." Louis settles into one of the visitor chairs, and waves a hand at Liam's bed. "So sit."

Liam's feet are getting cold, so he gets back in the bed and sticks his legs until the blanket before starting to sketch. He gets the basic lines of Louis's bomber jacket down: the curved collar, the crisp turn of the shoulders, the cuffs tight to his wrists. Then Louis starts to squirm slightly, crossing his legs, then uncrossing them, and fiddling with the zip on his jacket. "All right?" Liam asks.

"Just not used to having someone look at me like that is all."

Liam raises his eyebrows, watching Louis blush furiously. "It's only been five minutes."

Louis clears his throat and readjusts his jacket again. 

_Corpsman Bryan and his assistant are returning_ , Station says. She must say it to Louis as well, because he turns to look at the display on the wall. Doc and Gio are a few meters down the hall and approaching. 

"We're not actually doing anything," Liam says, feeling as though he should point it out, but smiling at Louis at the same time.

"Put the smile away, Payne," Louis grumbles. 

Liam goes back to his sketch, adding in small fabric details as the door slides open. Doc looks grouchy, and he narrows his eyes at them. "I see the leg hasn't fallen off, so you can go," he says to Liam. "To your quarters. Not to Botany, at least until tomorrow. Got it?"

"Why can't I go -"

"It's a mess and I don't want you having some sort of freak-out while you're still adjusting," Doc says bluntly. "You might feel okay today but you're still healing. Quarters, and the canteen, and that's it."

He points at Louis. "You, make sure he doesn't do anything dumb."

"I - yeah, okay," Louis says. 

Liam starts to get up, then looks down at his bare legs and asks, "Could I get some pants?".

  


**two**

_Good morning, Liam,_ Station says, as Liam blinks awake, tucked next to Louis in his bunk. _Today you can visit Botany if you'd like. Repairs continue, slower than we prefer. The Sergeant is approaching your quarters._

"Uh, thanks," Liam mutters, and wiggles out of the bunk, trying not to wake up Louis.

He manages to yank on a thin pair of the joggers provided for off-duty rec times before the soft chime alerts him to the Sergeant's presence at the door. "Payne," he grumbles, looking Liam up and down, "you couldn't put a shirt on?"

Liam feels like he can get away with saying "You arrived here with no warning, Sergeant," and the Sergeant outright smiles at that. His smile is still sort of terrifying. Liam feels himself turn red. "I, uh. Do you need me for something?"

The scary smile broadens for a second. "Actually, I need him," the Sergeant replies, and points at Louis in Liam's bunk. "Shuttle coming from the surface has some sort of mechanical problem they need us to fix before they can continue on to the _Hadid_."

"Yeah, yeah, Sergeant," Louis says, but when Liam looks over his shoulder Louis still looks like a lump under the blankets. 

"Bay Three, Louis." The Sergeant walks off and the door slides shut again. 

Liam turns around, feet cold on the bare floor. He needs socks. Louis is sitting up on the edge of the bunk. "Is it weird that he knew where you were?" Liam asks.

"No, he probably just asked Station." Louis stretches his legs out in front of him, then wiggles his toes before standing up. He'd come over post-shower after using the gym last night, so he's in a slouchy sweatshirt and some loose shorts, the sort Liam usually wears either to sleep in or play footie. He'd been nearly too warm to sleep next to, but since Liam's almost always cold, he didn't mind at all. "How's the leg?" Louis asks.

Liam looks down at it, even though it's covered up. "Feels like normal." 

"Cool. All right, I'm off. See you later?" 

Liam gestures at Louis's pyjamas, and Louis only shrugs. "No one really cares."

Liam has to laugh at that, then says, "I'm going to Botany, so I'll probably be there until Nate kicks me out."

"Then I know where to find you." Louis smiles. The corners of his eyes crinkle up, matching the pillowcase crease pressed onto his cheek. His hair's sort of a mess after sleeping on it, so Liam reaches out and fixes it for a second, then kisses Louis goodbye.

He washes up and gets dressed, then gets a morning protein drink from the canteen - there's a little strawberry flavor to it, so they must have used some of the fruit from last week - before taking a transport to the botany bay. He's halfway imagining a giant hole in the ground, half the trees gone, the waterfall ruined and all terrible things like that. But while there is a large trench that he can see right away, it looks almost orderly, and there are ladders stretching down into it. 

"Station, was there structural damage to the drainage under-deck?" he asks quietly.

_No. Only the support structures in the D16 and D17 sections._

Station numbers sections of the bay by a grid, which he and Nate mostly don't use, but Liam finds he's easily able to pull up a schematic of the bay in his mind's eye. Which is likely Station helping. He cuts through the fruit trees, which don't seem disturbed at all, to get to the waterfall area. Nate is standing there, holding a spade in one hand and some sort of drill in the other. He waves the spade at Liam, smiling. "I see you're getting around all right."

"Feel like I always did, actually. Except for talking to Station. That part is taking some getting used to."

"I bet. Want to see what we're working on?"

"Yes, definitely."

Nate heads for the trench, and Liam follows. The edges of it are pinned up by some sort of mesh building material he doesn't recognize, clearly holding the dirt back from falling down into the drainage deck. The whole trench stretches about fifteen meters, and it's wide enough that Liam's not sure he could jump across it. Maybe with a running start. There are a few ladders laid across like bridges. "So Station's actually having sort of a fight with Lou, about what upgrades we can make in the sub-level before closing things up," Nate says, and his expression clearly conveys what he thinks about that. 

He continues, "We don't have the materials here to do any true upgrades, they'd have to ship over from a much further station, probably the _Mendes_ , and we really need to get back into production as soon as possible since some of the fruit and vegetable gardens were ruined. I've got enough seeds and cultures to get us going again, but no strawberries in our shakes for a while."

"Someone said something about the Sergeant redoing the waterfall?" Liam asks. "It looks alright."

"More like he's worried about a fault that might go underneath it, so we're going to fix that section up eventually as well. It's less of a priority, though, since that part of the gardens is really more for everyone's mental health than serving our production mission." Nate's face twists slightly and he adds, "I know Command thinks we should all just forget about - well, you don't really need to hear me bitch about all that, Liam. Brad's working on a redesign, and once we get this section filled back in and replanted, he and Lou will reinforce that one."

"Nate," someone calls up from the trench, and Liam leans over the edge to see that it's Harry in a protective hat and waterproof coveralls. "I think I got the last of the plant bits out of the pumps." 

He holds up a bucket half full of soggy green things; it makes Liam sad just to look at it. Nate takes the bucket from Harry and passes it to Liam. "How about you take this into the nursery and see what's salvageable?" he says in a soft voice. 

"Okay."

Liam loses the next few hours to sorting out what Harry fished from the drainage system, keeping everything in orderly rows on one of the empty tables. Noola perches on his shoulder for a while, leaning over towards the table as though it's watching what he's doing. Most of the bits - he hates to think of it as debris, some of these plants he raised from seed and coddled on a hydroponic rig until they were stable enough for transplant - are leaves and stems. There's nothing to be done with those except turn them back into compost. The underdeveloped fruits and vegetables, mostly small hard green things, he saves for Nate's experiments. 

There are a few clusters of roots still clinging to parts of stems, and even though they're unidentifiable right now, they might not be worthless. He's carefully settling one clump into the gel of a hydro rig cup when he hears footsteps behind him.

 _It's only Louis_ , Station murmurs before Liam can turn around, and then he feels Louis's hand slide around one side of his waist and squeeze. "Forget what time it is?" Louis whispers in his ear.

"Got caught up in this," Liam says apologetically. "What time - oh. Guess I missed lunch."

Louis holds up a bag. "Never fear, love, I bought your portion of protein cubes and flatbread directly to you."

"Ta, that's lovely." He kisses Louis quickly. "I've got two of these left to get in here, give me five minutes."

"Sure."

Liam gently nestles the last two bits of roots in their cups, although they're not much and likely won't grow again, before wiping off his hands. He wipes down the tabletop as well, then gestures for Louis to take a seat. 

Louis settles onto one of the stools and pushes the bag over to Liam. There's a green drink bottle and a packet of candies as well as the protein cubes and bread. "Extras, thank you," Liam says, and kisses Louis's cheek. 

"I had to eat with Harry and Niall," Louis grumbles, pretending to be annoyed, draping himself over Liam's shoulder while he eats, and not moving. "It was terrible."

"I'm sure." Liam opens the candies and offers some to Louis. 

"The Sergeant's transferred me to work in here for a while," Louis says after a few minutes has passed.

"On the repairs?"

"Figures it'd be best to have one us in here every day, at least until the supports are all rebuilt."

"...so you can talk to Station while working," Liam guesses. "I can't do that?"

Louis purses his lips, then frowns slightly. "Well, I guess - uh, technically? Yes and no."

Something odd twists in Liam's stomach. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing bad," Louis hurries to say. "Only that the information me and the other EAs can get is more… _more_ , I guess, than you can. Right now. Station can talk to you, but your connection to her goes mostly one way, from you to her. We get a lot more stuff."

"Like what?"

Louis fiddles with his hair for a second. "Well, she's always running a diagnostic on one of the systems, so we get that information as it happens. We can sort of tune it out, if it's not relevant to what we're doing at the time, like if I'm running a flight sim I don't need to know what's happening with the communications array, that sort of thing. And then there's the part where she connects us all to each other, so - sometimes there's things, uh, well. You wind up knowing all about everyone else's sex life."

Liam groans at that one and rubs a hand over his face. Louis squeezes his shoulder and adds, "Didn't I tell you everyone knows about everything on a station this size?"

  


**four**

"- I'm fine, really, Mum," Liam says, for the third time, handheld propped up against a bucket of planting mix on the table. "Was just my leg, and it's all healed up now."

"Are they sure it was only an accident, and not sabotage of some kind? You know there's those people who want to destroy the program." She pauses. "Are you even listening?"

"I am!" He looks up from the microscope. "I can work and listen at the same time, you know."

His mum laughs at that one. "Right, love. Well, you do look rather caught up in it, so I'll hang up. But ring me on Sunday, your sisters are coming over for supper and they'll want to hear all about this."

"I will," he promises. "Love you."

"Love you, too." 

The connection ends, leaving the slowly-spinning JupiterCorps logo on the screen. Station says, _Your mother is not wrong that there are those who would try to damage me, and the other Stations. Is it strange that I think about this often? I worry about all of you, and the safety of everyone here._

Liam sits up straighter on his stool, then sighs. "I try not to think about it?" he replies. It's not truly a question; there are a lot of other people whose job it is to worry about the protection of the mission. Liam's job, right now, is to look at these plant cell cultures, because Nate's decided it's time Liam learn some of his mad scientist things. He's not completely sure what he's supposed to be looking for here, so he moves the tablet a little closer so he can pull up Nate's actual written orders. There are diagrams and everything. 

_Are there really so many humans who do not see the value in our mission?_ Station asks.

"I think that's a question for someone smarter than me, really," Liam admits. "There's people that think we should... well, I guess they believe that if the planet is dying, the fate of humans should be to die out as well. And not move into space."

Station doesn't answer immediately, and Liam gets the strong sense that she's mulling that over. _Human motivations are often difficult for an AI to understand_ , she says, after Liam's flicked through several screens of Nate's notes to find what he needs.

"That makes sense. Humans are weird."

 _By my calculations, the movement for migration vastly outnumber those who do not wish to leave Earth._ Station does the thing where she pauses, but Liam can sort of sense that she has more to say. It's an odd feeling, like something is queued in the auditory processing part of his brain, although he feels it more like a strange anticipatory pressure in his ears. _Liam... by my calculations you will likely never see the Jupiter stations._

"No, not unless the construction really speeds up." He looks into the microscope again. One of the cells divides slowly, like a bubble. "My sisters' kids might, though."

_Does that anger you?_

"No," Liam answers honestly. "That's just how it is."

Station must turn her attention to other things after that, because she doesn't respond. Liam watches the cells a while longer, sketching some of the changes, and timing others. The rate at which they're dividing doesn't seem to be as quickly as Nate's notes indicate they should be. 

There's the slight rustling of Noola on it's perch above the door - it got bored with Liam after a while - and the hum of the various hydroponics rigs. There are more of them now, more than Liam's ever seen in the nursery, enough that someone folded up some of the work tables to make room. The bits of roots salvaged from the accident are the closest to the table he's at, and he can see a few of the cups have tiny green things peeking out, but not enough of anything to identify them yet. 

He hears a light tap, then the sound of wheels, and looks up from the microscope to see Nate pushing a cart through the door, with one hand up to dissuade the fern from dropping down on him. It works, but Noola rustles in a clearly annoyed way, and climbs to a different shelf as though it's now mad at Nate. "What's it going to do if you ever - wait, how long do ferns like Noola live?" Liam asks, microscope now forgotten.

Nate rolls the cart into an empty corner and starts opening the containers stacked on it. "I don't really know," he says. "There's only a handful like this, and they're all about the same age this one is. Any luck with those cultures?"

"I don't think so. What I'm seeing isn't the rate your notes have, unless I'm timing things wrong."

Nate walks over and elbows Liam lightly out of the way so he can look, then leafs through the few sketches Liam had done. "Yeah, that doesn't look like I expected. Which is fine, it's an experiment. They don't all work. Document it so we know what not to do next time, and recycle it."

Liam glances up at Noola, then back at Nate. "Did you… were you the one who created them?"

"Created what?" Nate asks, looking through the scope again. "Oh, the fern? Yeah, in school. Really, Ray and I were messing with things we probably shouldn't have been, splicing things that shouldn't have gone together."

"But it worked out."

"I'm still not sure what we did it _for_ , other than that we could," Nate replies. "We got lucky is all. And they do contribute to the environment."

"No wonder it loves you best," Liam says, and Nate chuckles. 

Liam cleans up the failed experiment, then his comm chirps. It's Harry, wanting to know if Liam's coming to his birthday celebration. "Your room is the size of a closet, how big a celebration can it be?" Liam asks. 

Nate rolls his eyes and points to the door, clearly indicating that Liam can leave. 

"I'll be there in a few minutes, Harry," Liam tells him.

He wipes off his hands, changes back into his regular shoes, and reaches up to pat Noola goodbye before leaving. It only takes a minute to get to the hab deck, which sounds a little louder than normal. 

_The volume on this deck is at a higher level than I have previously recorded_ , Station agrees. 

Harry's door is propped open, and Dalton and Gio are sitting on the floor of the corridor. "I got cushions in my room, if you want," Liam says to them, and gets shrugs in reply. Liam opens his own door and sets it to stay open. "You can grab them if you want."

Harry's room is crowded with more people than Liam even thought Harry knew, but he finds Louis right away, and leans against him from behind. "Hi."

"Hi." Louis winds their fingers together. "I guess this is a party?"

"Liam!" Niall yells, skidding up to them in his socks and hugging Liam and Louis both at the same time. "You made it, didn't have to stay with the plants!"

Liam laughs into Louis's hair. Louis leans back against him, radiating contentment. "How long before you think we can sneak out?" he whispers to Liam over his shoulder.

"I only just got here, so not immediately," Liam replies, also in a whisper. 

Niall pokes him in the cheek, and when Liam turns his head, Niall's got both eyebrows raised. He says, "Still standing right here, and I can hear you. You can't leave me with these people. Look at them. Standing about with guitars they're not playing."

Only Mitch is holding a guitar. Harry's is on his bunk, buffered by several pillows. Liam curls his fingers in Louis's shirt and says to Niall, "If you're angling for a singalong, best bring it up to the birthday boy."

Niall makes a face and leaves for some other part of the room.

_I do not understand the purpose of a party._

"I don't understand parties either," Louis mumbles, and Liam has to laugh at that, and tighten his grip on Louis a little. "Handsy tonight, Leemo," Louis adds, even quieter. 

"Don't know what you mean." 

Louis chuckles softly at that and the feeling of it vibrates. Liam's stomach swoops a little. Everyone in this room is a friend of theirs and, as Louis is always pointing out, there really aren't any secrets on the station. It still makes his heart race slightly faster to have his hands on Louis where other people can see. 

"I know, Station," Louis mutters.

"What?"

 _Your pulse has quickened substantially_ , Station says. 

Liam hides his face against Louis's shoulder. "Oh, no."

"You're the one who said we couldn't just sneak out," Louis says, sounding smug about it. 

Harry's still across the room, gesturing wildly along with whatever he's saying to Mitch, looking intent. "Right, let's say I lied about that, since Harry's still talking Mitch's ear off over there, so we can tell him his party is terrible and go." 

He loosens his grip on Louis, who scowls a little as he says, "Tell him? Just ditch."

 _I could manufacture a small emergency_ , Station suggests. She sounds very polite about the offer, and it makes Liam blush further. 

"We can't go to your quarters," Louis says, leaving the _because it's right next door_ unsaid. "Meet you at mine in five." Then he slides out of Liam's arms and out of the room, and Tommo smirks openly at Liam from where he's sitting next to Harry's guitar. 

Liam goes to his own room, stepping over Dalton's legs in the process, and finds no one's borrowed anything so he can close the door, then walk in the other direction and take the long loop around to Louis's room. 

The door slides open to admit him automatically. The lighting is dimmed and Louis has tossed his jacket somewhere; he's standing in front of the screen with all the station info in trousers and a vest, rubbing idly at the tattoo on his upper arm as he looks at the screen. "Something happening?" Liam asks, leaving his shoes by the door.

"More like I'm making sure nothing's happening." Louis holds out his arm and Liam ducks under it, pressing close to Louis's warmth and wrapping his arms around Louis's waist. "Thankfully, nothing is happening."

"Good." 

Louis tucks his fingertips under the waistband of Liam's trousers. "Hopefully nothing continues to happen," he says, pulling Liam toward the bunk.

"That would also be good," Liam replies, and he lets Louis tip him onto the blankets.

  


**seven**

"You know I've never even been on this deck," he says to Louis as they step out of the transport tube onto the metal grate flooring of E-deck. It's dimly lit, although he can already see some of the spaces brightening now that Station knows they're there. 

Louis affects a surprised expression, eyes widening and mouth opening slightly, before he shakes his head and says, "I do know that, actually, Leemo. 's why we're here. How's you going to be part of Station's network if you haven't been to all the out of the way places?"

"That. Is a very good question." He still pinches Louis for it, very gently, right where he knows it tickles. 

Louis jumps, batting at Liam's hand. "Not the soft spots!"

"But they're your best spots."

Louis pretends to hit him on the side of the head, but mostly cups Liam's ear for a second before rubbing his fingers over the stubble on Liam's cheek. "What's this beard you're working?"

"Keeps my face warm," Liam deadpans. 

"You didn't just want us to match?" Louis replies in the same tone. "Come on, let's stop standing about."

E-deck seems to be mostly inhabited by the small rolling service bots that Liam occasionally has to sidestep in the corridors, but here they move out of his and Louis's way. There are cabinets after cabinets of flickering electronics, all sleek and gray, and stretching floor to ceiling. 

Past the clear-walled cases is what looks like a large matte black tube, wide enough across that Liam could probably lie down in it. He knows it's one of the ion drives that runs the station. Louis stops next to him and slides his hand into Liam's. "It's triple shielded, it won't make you sick."

"I'd have to stand here for about two weeks for it to make me ill," Liam replies, and Louis beams as though he's quite proud of Liam for knowing that. 

"Come on." He tugs Liam along by the hand. "It's a bit warmer on this deck, and Station doesn't mind if we're here as long as we don't touch those server racks back there."

"Thanks, Station," Liam says.

_You are welcome._

Louis pulls him around a corner, and Liam sees a few of the all-purpose cushions stacked along the wall, along with two rolled-up blankets. "It's also a bit quieter," he says, voice soft, before he yanks Liam in close to him for a kiss. Liam bites gently at Louis's bottom lip and Louis makes a surprised noise, crowding closer. They kiss sort of lazily for a while, as Liam pulls Louis's shirt out from where it's tucked in to his trousers. He takes his time - doing it slowly feels indulgent, and Louis isn't protesting or trying to hurry him along at all. 

"Hand over that blanket, yeah?" Liam says, right up against Louis's ear. 

"You've got plans?" Louis tries to counter, but he's flushed and pressing his body up against Liam's, so the words haven't got any snap at all, and are instead a soft, pleased mumble.

Liam unbuttons Louis's trousers and gets them down past Louis's hips before he puts the blanket on top of the metal grate of the walkway and gets on his knees. "Fuck," Louis hisses, and brings both hands up to cup Liam's face. "You sure, love?"

"I think I can get you off even if I don't use my mouth for all of it," Liam replies confidently, and Louis groans. Heat rushes through Liam at the sound of it, and at the way Louis looks a little disconnected from the world, his eyelids heavy and his mouth damp. 

Liam did that. It feels amazing. He pushes his nervousness aside and concentrates on not choking, even though there's a part of him that wants to know what it feels like to have Louis thrust in enough that he can't breathe. 

"Not tonight," Louis says, like he knows what Liam is thinking (it's entirely possible, he figures, that Station's relayed the message - the thought makes him shiver), before he tugs very lightly on Liam's hair. "Use your hand for most of the work - yeah, like that."

Liam's mostly used to the feel of Louis's cock in his hand by now, so that part is familiar. Louis says, "Don't need to be fancy about it," and Liam hums around the head of his dick, making Louis groan. 

Liam isn't entirely sure what to do with the hand that's not wrapped around the base of Louis's cock, so he rests it first on Louis's hip. That feels something less than comfortable, like both his hands are too close to his face - which is too much weird in addition to being careful to breathe through his nose, a problem Liam never really had to concentrate on before now - so he curves the free hand around the back of Louis's thigh, and that's much better. He can feel the tiny movements of Louis's muscles this way. Louis twitches minutely every time Liam does anything with his tongue.

With a groan, Louis nudges him back, mumbling something Liam can't make out over the pounding of his own blood in his ears, but it's obvious second later when Louis makes a low, choked-off noise, and comes on Liam's cheek. 

"I got it, hold on," Louis whispers after a moment, then Liam hears him chuckling as something not very soft wipes off his face. It smells sort of like repair grease; it's probably one of the all-purpose cloths everyone's always recycling. 

"You better not have wiped down a shuttle with that," he says, even as he turns his face up into Louis's gently touch.

"No promises."

Liam blinks his eyes open. Louis is grinning even as he's tucking his cock back into his shorts. Liam rubs his hand over his mouth, still tasting salt, and doesn't miss the way Louis watches when he licks his lips. Then Louis says, "Practice makes perfect."

Liam laughs at that, just a little, the sound breathless to his own ears. He works his jaw for a second longer, his mouth feeling raw, as Louis runs a hand through his hair, the touch making it obvious he's fixing what he'd messed up. Then he swipes a thumb over Liam's tingling lips. 

Liam sits down fully on the deck, leaning against one of the cushions, rubbing the palm of his hand over his dick through his trousers. Louis raises his eyebrows and says, "How about you take it out and let me watch?"

That sounds good to Liam, even if it does make him blush. His skin prickles at the way Louis is looking at him - still looking at him - as Louis kicks another of the cushions into a prime viewing spot. Liam undoes his fasteners. 

It's almost embarrassing, how quick it's over, except for how Louis's gaze is almost like a weight holding Liam in place, and hot and sharp, enough that Liam flushes even more every time their eyes meet. "'s a good view," Louis murmurs, voice low, and _honestly_ , Liam could not get any hotter. 

The hazy noise building in his ears increases, like the sound of a shuttle powering up, and he makes what's probably a stupid sound as he comes. It echoes slightly, or maybe that's just Louis's sharp inhale. Liam slumps backwards, aware that the grate beneath his ass and thighs is not comfortable at all, and tries to catch his breath. 

Louis slides off the cushion and curls up next to Liam, his head on Liam's shoulder.

"We probably shouldn't stay on this deck all night," Liam says after a few minutes of silence, attempting to push himself up a bit with one hand, and mostly failing. The rag Louis used to clean up his face is nearby, and Liam only has to reach a little bit to snag it so he can wipe off his hands.

"No." Louis doesn't move.

"I don't think it would be very comfortable to sleep on."

"No."

Louis still doesn't move, and Liam pinches fingertips lightly against his side until he squirms, laughing. "All right, all right, your room or mine?"

"Yours, unless you want to wake up in five hours to whatever musical instrument Mitch has managed to craft from spare bits this week. I don't know where he finds the parts, honestly," Liam says, standing up, then pulling Louis up by his hands. "We're only a small station. Are there that many salvageable bits from shuttle repairs that Mitch can fashion something that's got strings?"

"Yes." Louis hunts around for his shoe with his foot. Liam wonders when he even took his shoes off. "He even got permission."

"Permission to wake me up at six in the morning," Liam grumbles. "What is he even making strings _from_?"

Louis gets his shoe on after some hopping, then loops his arm through Liam's. "You could request a room change. Station likes you. She'd fuck with hab assignments for you. Harry'd come back to what he thought was his room one day, only no, the door won't open, because now it's Bella's room."

That makes Liam laugh. "And then I'd probably get the Sergeant staring me down, because he'd know."

"You can't be held accountable for what Station does," Louis says solemnly. He opens a door to a set of stairs that Liam didn't even know existed. "We're only a level down from the habs," Louis adds. "You know if the gravity goes out we can't use the transport tubes, right?"

Liam vaguely remembers that from his orientation. "Doesn't mean I know where all the stairs are."

In Louis's quarters, Liam strips down to his shorts and leaves the rest of his clothes somewhat neatly hung over one of the bars on the bunk ladder. Louis leaves his all in a heap. "Needs to go in the recycler anyway," he says, and pokes the pile with his foot before sliding under the blanket on the bed. 

"Sometimes I think it's so weird, that we can make most of the things we need with a machine, but we're still up here with gardens in space, so that we can all breathe," Liam murmurs, tucking himself close to Louis as Louis pulls the blanket up and the magnets click into place.

In the dimness of the room - it's never entirely dark, not with Station's screen on the wall, even if it's faint like it is now - Liam can just tell Louis is looking directly at him with an expression like something's just occurred to him. "I forget most of the time that me and the other EAs only ever know what life's like here," he says, and he doesn't sound mad or upset about it, just sort of wondering. 

"Everything on the surface is a bubble, too," Liam murmurs, the words slightly misshapen by a yawn there at the end. "Being in Botany - it's really close, the same sort of feeling. Just smaller. And with stars, outside the dome, instead of gross gray clouds. You're not missing anything." 

He realizes as he says it that he really means it. He doesn't miss anything about New London except for his family, and he can still talk to them whenever all of them have a free minute to open a video connection. He leans his forehead against Louis's shoulder for a moment, then says, "Sometimes I wonder if the gardens here don't actually feel more like how Earth used to be. But it's not like I know properly, what things were like before."

Louis makes a small noise and presses their mouths together, soft and gentle, before he yawns as well. "Deep thoughts for this late."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad you're okay," Louis whispers, as he wiggles down under the blankets a bit more, so that the edge of the material is almost covering his nose. 

Louis falls asleep within minutes, one arm over Liam's hips. It's gentle and comfortable, and Liam closes his eyes, feeling the soft warm air whenever Louis exhales against the back of his neck. But despite the feeling of contentment, sleep dodges him, even after counting backwards from a hundred more than once. 

"Station," he murmurs, soft enough not to bother Louis. "You said there was more, like, with the connection and all that."

_Yes._

Liam turns on his side, tucking himself close to Louis, who doesn't even stir. Liam slides a hand over his hip, rubbing a light thumb over the jut of bone. "Could you show me?"

 _Certainly. Louis and Tommo are both asleep, so things will be relatively quiet._ Station herself sounds fairly quiet; Liam figures because it's late and the majority of the crew are off-duty. 

"What's it like?"

_I cannot explain in words, I am not human._

"Right."

 _Ready?_ Station asks. _If it is too much information, we will adjust back to the previous mode._

Suddenly, Liam knows that the temperature on the flight deck is several degrees cooler than normal, because there are no shuttles idling, and that Lou is up in command, doing something involving words. Maybe reading - no, having a conversation with someone. The Sergeant. He can't hear what they're saying, but he can feel... contentment, maybe? There's a feeling from Lou that reminds Liam of when he's busy in the gardens and focused on completing whatever he's doing, and it's going well. 

Just as suddenly, Liam feels like laughing, the pressure of it bubbling up in his chest. Station says, _Lou is aware that I have allowed you more access to the network_.

"It doesn't seem like he's mad about it?"

_No._

"Liam, what are you doing?" Louis asks, the words sleepy and mumbled. 

"Honestly, nothing." He presses a kiss to the back of Louis's neck. 

Louis makes a humming sound and turns over, settling comfortably against Liam while barely opening his eyes. "Talking to Station."

"Yeah." 

"It's not so weird after all, innit?"

"Not really," Liam admits.

Louis pats his arm and yawns. "We should all go to sleep, let Lou do whatever it is he's doing without us bothering him."

Liam's immediately worried he's done this wrong. "Was I bothering him? I wasn't trying to listen in, or eavesdrop, anything like that."

There's another rush of that laughter feeling; this time it seems to come from more than one direction. "No, no no," Louis murmurs, squirming closer and putting his arm over Liam's waist again. "Not doing anything wrong, Leemo."

  


**nine**

Tommo and the Sergeant come in with ion torches and bundles of new, sleek metal bars that they weld into place, then secure a drainage grate on top of. Liam spends several hours on Wednesday in near silence with Louis, raking back dirt for a few meters on either side of the trench so that they can unroll the barrier material that allows water to pass through, but not anything else. "Don't know the last time I got this dirty," Louis says, as they overlap the new barrier onto the old.

"Some dirt under your fingernails never hurt anyone," Liam laughs. He smooths the material down carefully, then uses his cupped hand to pull dirt over the places where the overlap is, gently sealing it in place. "Guess it's not quite the same as what's down on the surface, but close enough."

He stands up cautiously, so he doesn't move the thin layer, and backs up far enough that Louis can shovel more dirt onto the edge he's just fixed. They continue this way the whole length of the repair, until there's just the long strip of bare dirt, and no more trench. Louis rests his chin on the shovel's handle. "Doesn't look as sad anymore."

"Just empty." Liam tamps down a bit of dirt with his boot. There's a pleased-hum sort of feeling from Station, which makes him smile. Louis clearly feels it as well, because his face goes a little soft. The pleased feeling gets stronger for a moment, which Liam's body interprets as a rush of _that feels good_ , and it's enough to make him shudder. 

"Well, that was really a feedback loop there for a sec," Louis mutters. He blinks rapidly. "Wow."

Both their comms beep, then Lou's voice says, "What was _that_?".

 _Repairs to botany have been completed_ , Station replies.

Lou huffs audibly over the link, then disconnects. Louis meets Liam's gaze. "That's probably the happiest Station's ever felt about us fixing anything that's broke," he says. Then his comm beeps again.

It's the Sergeant this time. "I need you on the flight deck," he says. 

Louis brushes his palms off on his trousers. "Well. Guess I've been summoned."

"Go on then," Liam says. He leans over to kiss Louis's cheek quickly, then adds, "Meal in the canteen later?"

"Twenty-one hundred." Louis passes him the shovel, then heads towards the transport tubes.

Liam looks back at the work they'd just finished. Station's still very pleased about it, and it's a nice feeling, like a warmth suffusing his bones. "I could probably get quite a bit of planting done before shift end," Liam says to her.

_Nate's tracking data indicates several flats are likely ready for transplant._

"Great."

In the nursery, he pats Noola for a moment before going up and down the rows of tables, then calling Nate on his comm. "We're done filling in where the collapse was. What should I move out of here first?"

"Whatever's the most ready. I trust your judgement. I'm down in Flight, be up in twenty minutes or so to take a look at things." 

Liam finds a flat of strawberries that look about ready to stage an escape from their planting cups, and carries those out into the fruit and vegetable gardens first. They've been engineered to overproduce, and are already budding. He puts in a shallow trench with the tip of the shovel, then starts nestling the plants into the new dirt, watering each one as he goes. It's quiet work; there's a few crew members sitting by the waterfall but he can't hear whatever conversation they might be having. There's a gentle rhythm to the moving of the small plants and Liam falls into it, enjoying having his hands in the dirt.

Nate comes over while Liam's about halfway done. He crouches down, reaching out to touch a few of the small leaves before he says, "Station's talking like you're part of her network now."

"I, uh," Liam manages, because his mouth is suddenly dry. "Yes?"

"Only making sure my information was correct." Nate smiles. He turns a critical eye towards where the collapse was. "If not for the bare dirt, you'd hardly know anything happened. We'll get it filled in soon enough. Where'd Louis run off to?"

"Something on the flight deck."

 _Two shuttles from the_ Swift _arrived. One has a flare-out in the ion drive_ , Station tells him. _Louis is the most adept of my engineers when it comes to drive repairs._

Liam grins to himself, then says at Nate's questioning expression, "Station's giving him compliments."

"I don't know what we'd do without them." Nate passes Liam another of the strawberries, then wipes the dirt from his hands onto his trousers and stands up. "Going up to Command," he says. "Don't wear yourself out."

"I'm fine, the leg's proper healed," Liam insists, and Nate just waves as he walks off.

There only a dozen more strawberry plants, so Liam gets them nestled into place, and then watered. He could just program the automated system to take care of the watering, but it's sort of calming to do it by hand, give each plant a measured amount one by one down the rows. When he's done, he figures they might need some protection from possibly wandering feet, and goes to rummage through the small equipment shed for something to use. 

_There should be several spools of fencing left from marking off the B-twelve to B-fifteen grid plots_ , Station says.

"Thanks, Station."

He finds the spools and manages to make something close to a rectangle around the plants. Then he goes into the electronics pod and programs the light and water arrays to account for the new additions, before putting things away in the shed. In the nursery, he wiggles his fingers in Noola's leaves for a moment while the fern rustles happily. 

Station tells him Louis is coming as he checks the hydro rigs, and he's got his arms up to his elbows buried in the vines and leaves of Nate's experimental squash plants, feeling for any buds that might be hiding, when Louis comes through the door. Liam hears him yelp as Noola drops down onto him. "Don't know why I'm surprised every time you do that," Liam hears Louis scold the plant. "Ridiculous."

Liam extricates himself just in time to meet Louis's mouth for a kiss. "Okay down in Flight?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Can you leave to get something to eat?"

"Don't see why not." He wipes his hands off quickly. 

It's cheese-flavored protein cubes in the canteen today, and they sit at their usual table with Niall and Harry again. "You up for footie this Sunday?" Niall asks Liam, waving a fork in his direction. "Smash us all with your bionic leg?"

Liam leans comfortably against Louis's shoulder. "'s not bionic, just regrown."

"Carbon fiber, titanium," Niall continues, "uh, Kevlar," still waving his fork and clearly listing all the materials he knows. 

Harry pauses with a piece of flatbread halfway to his mouth. His eyebrows draw together as he frowns. "If that's all you can think of, your education was lacking."

"Yeah, what've you got?" Niall asks, giving Harry an unimpressed look.

Harry shrugs. "Spider silk?"

"Ugh, not while I'm eating," Liam groans, pretending he's been put off his food, before drawing his plate close again defensively, lest Niall try to steal from it. 

_It is none of those things,_ Station says, sounding a bit defensive, and Liam chuckles to himself. 

Niall's expression turns considering. "Well if it was bionic, he'd definitely be winning at footie."

"No one's winning except me," Louis cuts in. He points his fork at Liam. "Bionic spider legs or not."

Harry lobs a bit of bread at him across the table. "You know one of the _Hadid_ clones actually has a bionic arm?"

"Complete rumor," Louis insists firmly. "Station would know for sure, and she'd tell me."

  


**twelve**

A few of Liam's transplanted ferns had been lost to the collapse, and not among the salvageable bits Harry fished out of the mess, so after they've finished planting Nate's half-stolen squash hybrids, Nate takes Noola from its perch and nudges it onto Liam's arm. "See if it'll proliferate for you," he says, "I'm out of here for the day - going over to the _Swift_ overnight to look at their hydro rigs. I'll be back tomorrow by noon."

"I'll try to keep Noola happy," Liam says, solemnly. Nate rolls his eyes and heads for the transport tubes with a wave.

Noola waves back. It's cute. Liam pats it gently, then moves it up onto his shoulder so it can ride there while he finishes putting in the new fertilizer tubing in the orchard. This involves creating a thin and shallow dip for the tubing to be buried in, and he can feel the fern's fronds curl into the neck of his shirt to hold on while he uses the tip of a shovel to make the divot. "I won't let you fall off," he murmurs to it. "What do you think, want to clone yourself today?"

Noola rustles, although Liam knows it can't actually process words and is only responding to the sound vibrations. He unspools the perforated tubing and gets it into place. "Okay, a few more minutes here, and then we're done with this project," he tells the fern, and continues narrating what he's doing as it pushes tiny leaves against his face. 

In the nursery, he mixes up several dishes of different growth mediums and puts them in a row on one of the tables. He's watched Nate do this before, although Noola must not have approved of anything Nate set out that day. "There, see if you like any of those."

The fern is large enough to stay on his shoulder as it presses the tip of one frond to each of the dishes. _This makes for a very charming picture, Liam,_ Station says. Liam gets that odd slip-slide feeling of suddenly knowing Station's enjoying something, however it is a space station can enjoy something. _Generally I feel some disconnect with Botany, as the living organisms there are not part of me in any way, and there is always the incompatibility of water and earth with all of my machinery. But I also know that's part of what humans enjoy about nature._

"Still took a massive amount of technology to build Botany," Liam replies. 

Noola has stopped on one of the dishes and is vibrating happily. As Liam watches, a tiny new fernlet sprouts from the tip of the frond. It's only a few nearly microscopic leaves and roots, but the roots wiggle down into the growth gel and the leaves seem to relax. "That's neat," he whispers. "Hey Station, I wonder - if Louis could share some of his nanites with me, could I transfer some of mine to this fern? Or would that not even work?"

Station gives an audible hum. _I have nothing in my resources to support or not support your idea, but what would be the purpose?_

Liam shrugs. He pats Noola idly while he turns the idea over in his mind for a moment. "Maybe as far as the ferns are concerned, air quality in places that are always overly recycled? Could make the hab deck less dry all the time. Less nosebleeds for Doc to deal with."

Station hums again, a frisson that Liam can feel all the way to his fingertips. _Nate has tried stranger experiments._

"Really?" Liam laughs, and Station flashes a bunch of images to him, quicker than he can actually process. "S'pose I don't doubt it."

His comm chirps. It's Louis. "What's all this about the ferns?" he asks. "Station's very entertained."

"Nate left me to mess about while he's gone."

There's a long pause, then Louis says, "Lou says not to poison anyone accidentally."

"I _wouldn't_ , and it's _ferns_." There's a wave of amusement so strong that Liam knows it's not just station, but all the EAs as well. "I felt that, you guys," he mutters, and it comes again. 

"I'll be up in a few minutes once Dalton's back," Louis tells him. The connection closes. 

Noola rustles on his shoulder and taps fronds against his ear, as though to draw his attention back to what it's done. "Yes, I will look at your baby here, let me get the magnifier, yeah?" Liam says to it, then rifles through a drawer. 

The fernlet looks like it should, and Noola rustles again, seemingly pleased. 

"How should we go about this," Liam murmurs, mostly to himself. Then he remembers how Doc explained Louis sharing his nanites. "Seems too easy?"

 _I will direct them_ , Station says, almost dryly. 

Liam leans over and exhales on the gel, feeling rather silly about it, but the impression he's getting from Station is serious. He puts the magnifier on the highest setting and can just barely see two black dots moving on the surface of the gel, towards the tiny roots of the fern, closer until they merge.

Station says, _I have not encountered a system such as this before. Allow me to process._

Ten seconds later, the leaves of the fern seem to vibrate, before doubling in size as Liam watches. "All right, Station?" he asks softly, amazed. 

_In a way, it is similar to when I was instructed to repair your injury._

He hears the door to the nursery slide open, and looks over his shoulder to see Louis. "You creating a jungle over there, or what?" Louis asks.

"It's only a baby fern." Noola shimmies on his shoulder, its fronds still touching his face. "Yes, you did an excellent job. Nate will be glad," Liam tells it. 

That seems to satisfy it, because it climbs down off Liam's arm and sits on the table, fronds poking at the other dishes of growth medium. Louis leans over him from behind, one hand on Liam's waist. 

"Station's intrigued by your experiment," he murmurs in Liam's ear. Then he reaches out and runs his fingertips lightly over the tiny fern. It climbs slowly onto his fingers. "Well, at least it didn't drop onto me from a height like that one there," Louis says, and Liam laughs. Noola's rustle is somewhat indignant-seeming. 

Louis lifts the tiny plant up in front of his eyes. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Hopefully get it to propagate. Then see if Nate won't let them hang out in places that aren't Botany; the hab deck would probably be the best. One for every few rooms to help with oxygenation. Program them to rotate through the deck."

"So you really are making a jungle over here."

Liam laughs again. "I wouldn't go that far. I'm going to grab a bit of fertilizer, you entertain it for a moment."

Louis gives him a dubious look. "All right."

Liam fetches one of Nate's home-brewed fertilizers and mixes a drop with some water for the fernlet, which dips one thin root into the little cup and seems to be okay with what Liam's stirred together. Louis watches the whole affair. "What are you going to do with it now?"

"'spose it needs a name," Liam replies. "Then it can hang out with Noola for now, I suppose; Station will tell me if something goes wonky with it."

 _I believe it is happy_ , Station says. _It may grow more in a moment._

Sure enough, the tiny fern shakes and seems to double in size yet again, as they watch. Liam feels Louis's hand slide into his. "That was neat," Louis whispers. "But it's not going to grow to be huge, right?"

"Should end up about Noola's size." Liam tickles the fern's leaves with his free hand, which it seems to enjoy. "I hope."

  


**sixteen**

"What the fuck is this," Nate says, after prying open the barrel. He stares down at the cloudy, murky water. It looks to Liam like there's something growing in there. 

"Uh," Liam manages to say, because he's never actually heard Nate swear before now. "Just got dropped off, by some guy from the _Hadid_ , right before you got here."

"Go grab that shuttle pilot and bring him back here." Nate points at the transport tube. 

"Right." 

Liam jumps into the transport still in his gardening boots. "Station, what bay?"

A red dot appears on the small informational panel. _Shuttle bay five. The shuttle has not been prepped for launch yet, you will be able to catch up. I will not open the bay for departure either way._

Station can be a bit petty at times and Liam loves it, honestly. Down on the departure deck, he sees the shuttle pilot just up ahead with the empty cart. "Hey, wait!" Liam calls after him. The cart squeaks to a stop. "Botany chief wants to see you."

The guy gives Liam a somewhat lazy look before he shrugs one shoulder. "Sure, fine," he says, and tucks the cart up against the wall before he has to duck around Brendan and Dalton hurrying past, then following Liam back to the transport tubes.

Nate's standing there when the tube door opens. "Zayn, what the fuck is this?"

Liam blinks. 

_I should have said._

Liam's not sure what he expected, but this wasn't it. This guy is slim enough that his flight suit looks baggy on him, and it seems to Liam like he's projecting an air of deliberate standoffish-ness. His arms are crossed over his chest as he leans back like the sheer desire to be anywhere but here will lessen the force of Nate's glare. Liam's never seen Nate look this annoyed at anything. 

"I fly over what they tell me to," Zayn's telling Nate. "Mattis -"

" _Mattis_ sent this over?"

Liam feels as though he's missing most of what this conversation's about. "Station, what's in the barrel?" he whispers under his breath.

_Seaweed._

Nate's now saying something about giving this Mattis guy a piece of his mind, how they're not set up to rehab any sort of water plant. Then, as Liam tries to pretend he's not listening, Nate locks in on Zayn. "And while you're here, some apologies would be in order."

"Didn't come over here to _chat_ ," Zayn replies, sounding surly even as he's edging back towards the transport tube. "Brought over what I was told, got it signed off, and I'm leaving now."

 _Louis is aware that he is here_ , Station tells Liam, which Liam had already guessed from the general feeling of unease that's winding through the connection. Silently, he slides between Zayn and his escape, catching Nate's eye. "He don't want to see me," Zayn adds. 

Nate looks as though he might let Liam block the way for a second, then shakes his head minutely. Liam moves back to his original position and Zayn goes for the transport tube, but the door doesn't open. "Station, open the door," he says, scowling. "I know you can hear me."

"Fucking seaweed," Nate's muttering. "What the hell are we supposed to do with that? We're not set up for anything even close. Station, let him go, unless he's changed his mind about those conversations he needs to have."

Station opens the door and Zayn scrambles into the tube, his boots clanging against the grate flooring. Liam wouldn't put it past her to trap him in there for a while, give him a good scare, but that's between Station and Zayn, and Louis. 

"If Louis wants to, he'll give Zayn a piece of his mind, I wouldn't worry about that," Nate says from behind him.

Liam turns, feeling his cheeks heat up. "Um. Yeah, if he wants."

Nate's mouth works for a second like he's trying not to smile, and Liam's face gets even hotter. "I'd tell you to go find your boy, but we've got shit to do now that we've got this thing of seaweed, so come on," Nate says, waving Liam along as he heads for the nursery. "Station can tell us what's happening anyway."

 _Pilot Zayn has returned to his shuttle_ , Station says, over the speakers for Nate's benefit. 

Liam follows Nate into the humidity of the nursery and they both look down into the murky water of the barrel. "Is it wrong that I sort of want Louis to punch him in the face?" Liam asks, unable to hold back the question. "He just - looked like the sort of guy who might need to get a good punch. What are we going to do with this here?"

"I'm not allowed to say who deserves a knockout and who doesn't, unfortunately. And I'm not sure. This isn't really my specialty. Build a pool for it? Suppose we should make sure it's viable first." He dips a hand into the barrel and lifts one of the plants above the surface of the water. "Looks alive. Where's the composition reader?"

Liam fetches it from the electronics pod. Nate frowns at the screen for a while, then types something into his handheld. "Okay, I think I've figured out what sort it is. Hopefully. Help me get the barrel over there out of the way of foot traffic, at least, and then I'll comm over to the _Hadid_ and find out what we're supposed to do with it."

"Probably the same thing we've done with all the other half-dead things the other stations have sent over," Liam replies, and sees Nate smother a grin.

They get the barrel onto a low rolling cart and then into a corner of the nursery. "Might as well read up on it while I'm gone," Nate says after he frowns at it for a minute. He starts heading for the door again, sidestepping a bot as he goes. "As I doubt we're getting rid of it."

Liam waves his own handheld. "On it."

Nate's gone longer than it takes him to read up on the basics of _Undaria pinnatifida_ , so he checks on the four ferns that Noola's progeny had deigned to proliferate yesterday. The five of them are in their own bed in the back of the nursery, the four babies not mature enough to move around on their own beyond a few slow inches at a time. Liam pulls up the program Station wrote for him on his handheld, and sends them a command to rotate. One by one, they crawl a few inches clockwise and resettle. 

"Good job," he tells them. He's only named Mikku so far, and it seems to be checking on the still-small others, patting them gently. Noola rustles from it's spot above the door, so Liam goes to mist it with water and assure it that no jealousy is necessary. He hears footsteps a few minutes later, then Louis slides in the nursery door at an angle to avoid Noola dropping down on him, and catches Liam easily around the waist.

"What's all this?" Liam asks, although he's sure he knows, and Louis kisses him. His grip is so tight it's nearly painful, but Liam doesn't mind in the least, sliding both his hands into Louis's hair and opening his mouth to the kiss. 

Louis is nearly shaking, but settles slightly the longer he clings to Liam, until he's mostly breathing against Liam's mouth. Liam strokes his hair gently and asks, "You alright?", nuzzling Louis's hot cheek.

"I really liked him a lot," Louis says all in a rush, and Liam senses Station frowning at this in a way he can actually feel, before Louis adds, "but I think I like you more. You wouldn't take off like he did, right?"

"'course not," Liam breathes. He cups Louis's face in one hand, sliding a thumb over his cheekbone, and Louis presses into the touch. "Think I've got too many things growing here to toss it all away like that."

Louis's grip tightens further. Station feels quite pleased, and Liam thinks to himself, _What if I just - stayed?_.

  


**twenty**

"You wouldn't be the first to re-up," Nate says, as they unload the prefab pieces from the shuttle. Liam's not sure how, but Nate got someone on the _Swift_ to manufacture them all the parts that can be put together to make a pond, so the seaweed must be a priority of sorts. "Since I got here, there's been a few people who've done another rotation, or done another on a different station. And it's how Brad got here, actually."

"Really? I always thought he was permanent crew."

"He is now," Nate chuckles. "Ready? One, two, three -" They heft the biggest piece onto the large rolling cart. "Where'd Louis go, I need to sign off on all this."

"Only the next bay over," Liam replies, finally having figured out how to feel for that information. It's weird, just being able to know where Louis is all the time if he wants to, but he figures it works both ways. And he likes knowing - it makes him feel even more like he's part of this place. 

Louis reappears a moment later. "Sorry, getting Dalton set up for his run." He holds out his handheld for Nate to scribble on, looking at everything they've piled onto the cart. "What's all this?"

"Someone decided Liam and I should be trying to grow fucking kelp," Nate sighs. He scrubs a hand over the stubble on his face and frowns. "I'm a botanist, not a marine biologist. I've still got half a mind to fly over to the _Hadid_ and let Mattis have it." 

Liam judges he won't, because there's probably a reason for the seaweed, even if they don't know it yet. 

"I can help with that if you want," Louis tells Nate, gesturing at the prefabs. 

"Great, come on up when you can."

Liam and Nate get the cart maneuvered into the transport tube - it's a tight fit with everything piled on there. "Take the next one, bring that other roll of material," Nate says before the door closes. 

Louis is holding the roll of plastic-seeming liner. It's taller than both of them, made to cover a full three meter stretch without needing overlap. "What's this for?" Louis asks, as they carefully get it through the doorway of the transport. He drums his fingers on it once it's standing upright again.

"It's going to go on the bottom of the pond, to be a barrier between those pieces Nate took up and the stuff the kelp grows in. That way if there's a leak of any sort, there's two layers that have to fail before there's water everywhere, and not only one."

Louis looks confused. "Seaweed grows in something other than water?"

"Yeah," Liam laughs, as they maneuver the roll out the door and carry it across the gardens to where Nate's standing next to the cart. The pond is going near the waterfall, but not connecting, and is specifically in a different grid section so that the area won't be too heavy on the underlying structures. 

He raises his eyebrows as they approach. "Do your homework?" he asks Liam.

"I did, yeah."

"All yours, then. I'll be up in command if you need me." 

"You're building the thing for the seaweed?" Louis asks, eyes wide.

"Station did most of the design, but I'm digging the hole," Liam replies, grabbing the shovel from where Nate left it earlier. 

Louis sighs. "Sounds less sexy that way," and Liam laughs and asks if he's helping or what. Station keeps track of the plans as they start to shovel the dirt into buckets, and a shallow dip gradually grows wider and deeper until Station says, _Stop. This is large enough now._

Liam leans on the handle of the shovel, watching Louis use the bottom of his shirt to wipe off his face. Then Louis frowns at the hole they've dug. "This is deep enough for all that?"

"It doesn't need a lake. You'll see. Help me unroll the liner."

Liam's got an almost complete picture in his head of what this is supposed to look like, thanks to Station ( _you're welcome, Liam_ ), but with only the liner in the somewhat shallow hole, the pond doesn't look like much. He and Louis wrestle the main prefab piece into place and it's not quite level, so Liam holds the piece up while Louis moves the dirt underneath it with his hands until Station is happy. 

"Looks fine now," Louis grumbles, rubbing his hands together in an attempt to get some of the dirt off. 

_It will settle a bit when filled; this is fine._

Louis rolls his eyes. "Alright, thanks, Station. You get down and dig with your hands."

 _That is why I have you,_ Station answers, which makes Liam laugh as he works on fixing up the edges.

"Now can we put the seaweed in it?" Louis asks.

The seaweed they're trying to keep alive likes rocky and shallow tide pools, and along with the pond-shaped piece, the _Swift_ sent over what looks like rocks. Louis picks one up from the cart, frowning. "These are going in the water?" he asks, and Liam can tell he's accessing the design. "Oh - yeah, all right."

It does look strange when they're done, set up but empty. Station is doing that pleased hum, so they've followed all her directions correctly. Liam buries the cords for the filtration pump, then marks off where he wants to plant things around the edges. "Station, you checked the circulator?"

The circulator is a flat disc the Sergeant built, which will hopefully vibrate the water in the pool enough to keep the seaweed happy until they figure out how to farm it. Nate looks slightly grim every time he says the word "cultivation", clearly not optimistic. 

_Mechanical parts are all operating at optimum levels,_ Station replies. 

Louis asks, "Were all the oceans full of this?", and Liam looks up to see Lou and the Sergeant bringing over the barrel that Zayn delivered four days ago. 

_Yes,_ Station answers. _Before the Great Event._

Not for the first time, Liam wonders what it must be like, to have always lived on a space station, to exist as part of that station on purpose, and to have never seen the surface. Louis dips his hand in the barrel and runs his fingers over the oddly rippled plants. "Thought it'd be slimy," he says to Liam with a grin.

"Move, Louis, so we can get this water in," the Sergeant says. Liam takes his boots and socks off, and rolls up the legs of his trousers, as the Sergeant and Lou slowly empty the contents of the barrel into the empty pool. 

"Have fun," Lou says to Liam, grinning as Liam steps into the cool water. 

Liam can't help his grimace at being up to his shins in it. "Yeah, thanks."

He gets the circulator where they've figured it should probably go, then gently separates the clumps of seaweed so that none of the leaves or holdfasts are tangled as the silt settles down to the bottom of the pool. "Don't know if this will work out, but this is the best Nate and I could figure," he says to Louis as Louis crouches at the edge.

"Guess it's difficult to replicate the ocean proper."

Liam chuckes. "Exactly."

 _The plants are all still alive,_ Station says after a moment. _I can feel them through you, Liam._

"Thanks, Station."

Louis helps him out of the water. In the nursery, he cleans up so he can put his shoes back on while Louis plays with the small ferns. "How much longer before they can go live on the hab deck?" he asks Liam.

"I think maybe a week or two. But I'm not sure, since they're a new thing." He tugs his socks on, then looks over at Louis a few tables away. "Can I ask you something?"

"'course."

"I know I haven't even been here a year, but I can't - really, I can't stop thinking about how I want to stay."

Louis tilts his head a bit. "That's not a question?"

"I know," Liam replies. He pauses with only his toes in his boot. "I really like it here, even if I did just have to stand in a pool of muck. And I - I can't picture myself going home, now."

Louis settles on the stool next to his and rests a hand on Liam's knee. "I think Nate would recommend you for a job a level up, if you didn't want to leave the Corps," he says, sounding to Liam like he's choosing the words carefully. "Actually run Botany on one of the stations or summat."

Liam feels Station outright scowl at that, and Louis must feel it too, because his mouth twitches. "Also sure Nate would approve you staying on here," he adds. He squeezes Liam's knee. 

Liam drops his boot and has to fetch it off the tile again. "He tried to caution me against worrying about it already."

Louis shrugs loosely at that, his hand slipping down to skim over where the thin silver line runs down Liam's reconstructed shin. "He doesn't know what it's like, being connected to Station. Maybe you were always meant to be here with us."

That makes Liam shiver a little, in a good way, and he tugs Louis off the stool and between his knees so that they can kiss, boot dangling from his foot and forgotten.

  


**epilogue: +1195**

"Not sure what to do with these," Louis said, holding a slim sheaf of papers as he and Liam merged their few possessions into larger quarters that Station had been delighted to assign. "Could toss them, I suppose."

Liam realized the papers were Zayn's artwork, previously decorating Louis's single room. "No, let's put them up with everything else," he said after a fleeting moment of deliberation. "They were gifts, yeah?"

The color-splashed pages now intermingle on the living room wall with several of Liam's sketches: Noola above the nursery door, the waterfall after the Sergeant rebuilt it, the series of pools housing the thriving _Undaria pinnatifida_ , and the outline of Louis that he'd done way back in the medbay after all the stuff with his leg. 

_You should add the one you've just completed,_ Station says, and Liam pretends to cover the sketchbook page with his hand so that she can't see it. _It is quite an accurate likeness._

"Stop, you know I can't draw faces," Liam replies, laughing. 

There's the whoosh of the outer door opening, followed by a familiar rustling noise from Mikku and Louis's annoyed exclamation. Then Louis appears in the bedroom doorway, a near-exact replica of the sketch Liam's just finished, pretending to look crossly at Mikku on his shoulder. "This one's supposed to be elsewhere, innit?" he asks, half to Liam and half to the fern.

"Got a mind of its own no matter what Station programs." Liam closes the sketchbook and quits his comfortable spot on the bunk to make his way over to Louis for a kiss. The familiar sharp scent of ion drives and repair grease fills his nose, along with the green scent of the fern. Louis asks, "Plans for tonight?".

"Told the kids they could help me pick peas," Liam replies, and Louis laughs warmly. "Want to come along?"

"And here I thought they decided Dalton was their favorite."

They both look down as Mikku drops from Louis's shoulder onto the floor, and crawls off towards the door, which slides open for it to leave. Liam can feel Station's mixed amusement and annoyance. "I guess it finally got the message," he says. "Supposed to be two corridors over."

"Can't help that it loves me," Louis laughs. He tugs Liam in for another lingering kiss. 

"I should get going," Liam says after a minute, squeezing Louis around the waist. "Were you coming along?"

Louis shrugs in an agreeable way. "Could watch the babies trample your plants, all right."

Liam elbows him lightly for that one. 

In the botany bay, he remembers to delay the watering schedule for half an hour, so that they won't be sending the kids back to their parents soaking wet. "I mean, we _could_ return them all wet," Louis says, "but I don't trust Lou not to make my life a living hell if we do."

Liam chuckles and makes sure the gate to Nate's experimental gardens is closed and locked, since something in there is a bright pulsing green and, he's sure, very attractive to small children. Then there's a shriek from near the transport tubes, and he turns around to see Lee running towards them. Louis jogs forward and scoops her up. "Oi, no running in here. Don't want to get hurt, right?"

Colbie's following at a slightly slower pace. Liam waves at El, who grins and waves back before getting back on the transport. Colbie wraps his arms around Liam's knees. "I am ready to pick peas," he announces.

"Awesome."

Louis takes Lee into the nursery to play with the ferns while Liam and Colbie pick peas - there are now enough mature plants that they should get several baskets. Colbie takes this assignment very seriously, and asks Liam if each peapod is ready before he plucks it from the stem. "You're doing a very good job," Liam assures him, holding out the basket for Colbie to carefully put another peapod in it. 

Colbie lasts another three plants before he asks if he can go play with the ferns as well, which is about as long as Liam expected he'd want to do one single thing. "Sure," Liam says, "as long as you can carry this basket for me? We have to walk slowly, okay, so we don't drop any."

Colbie nods solemnly. "I can carry it."

Lee has clearly decided she's done standing on her own two feet, and Louis is holding her on one hip as they stand next to one of the tables with their eyes closed, counting slowly to ten. "What are you guys doing?" Liam asks.

"Playing hide and seek, of course," Louis replies. 

"Who hiding?" Colbie asks, looking from Louis to his sister to Liam.

"Ferns!" Lee cries. It's one of the dozen words she knows so far. 

Louis catches Liam's eye and tips his head to the right, and Liam can see one of the baby ferns behind an empty pot. _Station_ , he thinks, _did you program them?_

_I did._

Liam smothers a laugh, and sees Louis cut his gaze away so that he doesn't laugh as well. "Should we look for the fern, Colbie?" Liam asks. He follows along behind Colbie as he looks under all the tables and stools, and Louis goes all the places Lee points to. It takes them a couple minutes to find the fern, which climbs quickly onto Colbie's hands when he crouches down to stretch his fingers out towards it.

They play three more rounds before Lee decides she's done, and droops red-faced and yawning against Louis's shoulder while he rubs her back soothingly. "How about you find Nio where it's hiding, and then you can help me put it to bed?" Liam whispers to Colbie. "Ferns need their sleep, too."

Colbie's eyes widen like this is a very serious assignment. "It needs nap?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I will find it." 

_Station_ , Liam thinks again, _where is it, actually?_

 _Under the table one over from where Colbie is_ , Station replies. _He will find it within two minutes._

Colbie finds the fern just enough time for Lee to fall asleep completely in Louis's arms, and it makes everything in Liam feel soft and a little mushy, looking at them. Louis smiles at him over Lee's head. Colbie lets the fern climb up his arm, then looks at Liam. "I found Nio!"

"Good job. Do you know where it sleeps?"

"No."

"Okay, I'll show you." Liam scoops up two of the other fernlets hanging from shelves to take to the planting bed in the back of the nursery. The last one is already there, burrowing its roots into the planting mix. "Okay, set Nio down on the edge - there, just like that, and then it'll climb in where it wants to sleep. See?"

Nio and the other two settle into place. Liam hands Colbie a small spray bottle. "Now we give them a drink. One spray for each fern."

"I can do it," Colbie says, and very carefully mists each plant, his face screwed up in concentration as he does. "Now they sleep?"

"Yep, now they'll sleep. They like it to be dark, just like you do when you go to bed." Liam tugs the little curtain around the planting bed that blocks out most of the brighter nursery lights. He can hear voices from the front of the room; Louis's voice saying, "She ran around a bunch, now she's wiped," and Lou chuckling.

"Dad!" Colbie yells, and takes off almost at a run but not quiet, having been reminded from the day he started walking that there might be slippery spots on the nursery floor, and he doesn't want to slip and fall and get hurt, right? 

Liam follows at a slower pace. Lou's got Lee in one arm, and he reaches out for Colbie with the other. "You have a good time, lad? Sure doesn't feel like you two were gone a couple hours."

Liam laughs outright at that, and Lou grins. "All right, take your kids out of here so I can close the place up for the night," Liam says, motioning towards the door of the nursery. "Bedtime for Colbie's favorite vegetables."

Colbie wrinkles his nose. So do Lou _and_ Louis. Liam only shakes his head. 

Lou slowly nudges his children off to the transport tube, while Liam drapes his arm over Louis's shoulder. "I've got about half an hour's worth of things to wrap up, you want to hang out while I do?"

Louis's comm beeps, answering that question. It's the Sergeant, requesting he stop down at Flight for a minute. "I'll come back when I'm done, and we can sit by the waterfall?" Louis asks, squeezing Liam's waist with one warm hand, then leaning closer for a kiss before he jogs off. 

Liam neatens all the work stools that were moved around during the hide and seek, then sweeps up dirt from the one pot accidentally tipped over. It's almost too quiet in the nursery now, only the low hum of the hydro rigs currently in use, babying a new set of apple tree seedlings that will eventually fly out to the nearly-complete botany sections of the Mars domes.

"Station," he says, mostly to break the silence, "do the Mars domes have an AI?"

 _The Mars domes have an automated system, but do not have an AI like the stations. They require a human always on duty in case of an emergency._ Station pauses for a moment. _Nate does not approve._

"I figured as much." He dims the nursery lights, then goes out into the main bay, keeping an eye on the watering rig as it moves. It comes to a stop above the vegetable gardens, so Liam goes around the long way so that he can check on the seaweed pools. 

It had taken him and Nate nearly a year to sort out all the taking care of the marine plants, and Liam had done enough research to feel like he was back in school again, but they'd figured out the best way of keeping the plants both alive and thriving, and added additional pools once it became apparent that the Corps wanted to try using seaweed as a food source. The canteen makes soup out of it - not Liam's favorite thing, but a break from the endless protein cubes.

The circulators are all working properly, briny water lapping gently against the fake rocks. It's calming to watch. Liam stands at the edge of one of the pools for a moment, then crouches down to dip his fingers in the water. After a few seconds, Station says, _Composition is as it should be._

"Great." 

There's a soft wave of amusement from Station, then she says, _A shuttle from the_ Mendes _has brought a shipment from the seed vault in New Istanbul, with instructions for Nate._

"I'm glad you find that funny, because he sure won't," Liam chuckles. He gets to his feet and wipes his damp fingertips off on his trousers. "We're going to need at least two more people in here if this keeps up."

_New crew arrive on Wednesday._

"Not soon enough."

He finishes the last of the evening checks just in time for Louis to reappear, with the seed delivery in hand. Liam signs for it, then squints at the tiny typeface on the labels. "I'll leave them for Nate," he declares after a second, and Louis grins and slides his hand into Liam's once the seeds have been put in a cooler in the nursery. 

"Odd around here without Noola waiting to drop on me any second," Louis says as they pass back through the doorway, his gaze flicking upward to the shelf where the fern used to sit.

"It's rotating onto our corridor tomorrow, so it'll ambush you then."

They settle onto a soft patch next to the waterfall. Louis stretches out on his back, putting his head in Liam's lap. "You know, I remember what it was like before the waterfall went in, and before all the trees were planted," he murmurs, looking up at the stretch of dome above them. "Hard to fathom now."

Liam drags his fingers slowly through Louis's hair. He can't even imagine what all this space must have looked like empty, nothing but planting material waiting. Louis pushes his head slightly into Liam's hand and says, "It's nice, being in here with no one else but us."

"Almost too quiet, though."

Louis laughs softly at that. "See, Leemo, that's how I know you're one of us now - can't stand too much quiet, now that you're used to Station going on and on forever."

Station pushes a definite feeling of _protest_ at them, and Louis laughs louder, his whole face crinkling up. "You know I love you, Station."

_I know._

Liam can't control his own laughter at that, and bends forward enough that he can just reach to kiss Louis's forehead. "Um, I need kisses _here_ ," Louis says, touching fingertips to his lips, and pushes himself up on his elbows. Against Liam's mouth he whispers, "Love you, too."

"Me too," Liam whispers back, then adds, "and Station," before she can protest being left out.

Louis kisses him again, slightly awkward at this angle, then settles back down. He stretches his far arm out along Liam's leg, and curls his fingers around Liam's ankle. "You glad you re-upped?"

It's been sixty-five days since Liam started his second tour, two hundred days since he and Louis merged their living quarters, and two hundred and some ( _two hundred and eighty-three_ , Station supplies) since he told his family he wanted to remain on the _Tomlinson_ for another tour. His mom had gotten a little teary, but he'd gone home to visit not long after, and told them everything then. "What's it like, being networked?" his sisters asked, wide-eyed and looking Liam over as though they thought there was something to see on the outside that would indicate the connection. 

"I'm still me. But anything I might want to know, Station can tell me in an instant, sometimes even before I ask. And it's like - like having even more family, really," he tried to explain, knowing the words he was saying weren't quite right, but they were close enough. 

It felt very odd, being that far from the station, being that far from Louis. There was a weird echo in Liam's mind the whole time he was gone, like a sound he couldn't quite catch. The distance was just enough that his nanites were out of Station's broadcast range, and for the first hour back in New London he'd felt that lack of connection keenly, until his sister held out her three month-old baby for Liam to meet, and distracted him.

Now, Louis stretches slightly in his lap, eyes closed. "You haven't answered."

Liam breathes in the warm, lush air of the bay. "Every day," he says, scratching his fingers through Louis's hair again until Louis makes a soft, pleased sound. "Every minute, really."

**the end**


End file.
